Preparedness
by DelicateFlow
Summary: A shy modern girl finds herself in the wrong place, and called to the wrong time. A time rife with dangerous predators and equally dangerous saviours, neither of which her comfortable life up to now has readied her for. She may not be enough now, but can she be? And in doing so, can she accept herself, and him for what he is?
1. Chapter 1

**Summary: A shy modern girl finds herself in the wrong place, and called to the wrong time. A time rife with dangerous predators and equally dangerous saviours, neither of which her comfortable life up to now has readied her for. She may not be enough now, but can she be? And in doing so, can she accept herself, and him for what he is?**

 **A/N: So this is technically my first fanfiction, but fret not - that doesn't mean it'll be quite as rough as that title might imply. I first began this story when I was about 11, then finished it when I was about 15, but never formally published it anywhere except a terrible little website I had at the time that has since been taken down - so it doesn't count. I went back to reread it when I was 22 only to find that while I remembered most of the plot, I'd lost the majority of the hard copy - so I decided to start anew and give it reconstructive surgery. So, since more time, effort and skill have gone into this, I hope you like it. I've written it up to about chapter 8 at this point, so I can post every week on Friday or Saturday up till then, but after that I make no promises because I am in university. The interface for this website drives me absolutely crazy so I've posted this story in AO3 as well, and I will always post to AO3 first.**

 **Also, since I don't want the feds coming after me for copyright issues or something equally dramatic-**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing but the original characters who appear in this story; I don't own the rights to InuYasha (though all things considered, this should be fairly obvious).**

* * *

 **Chapter 1**

The wind ruffled my hair as I shuffled my feet along one Friday evening. It was an unusually warm day in early March and even as I savoured the warmth on my skin from the setting sun I sighed. I had stayed late after school with my friend Kagome to help her tidy the classroom. She had invited me to sleep over this weekend because we'd been so swamped with work at school that we hadn't had the chance to really hang out lately. To be honest I was glad for the opportunity to finally relax, so I hadn't batted an eyelash at the little extra menial labour. Working together it hadn't taken long at all to finish cleaning, so still brimming with energy, Kagome had suggested that we race to her house.

I wasn't really in any clubs, nor was I particularly athletic, but I knew that with all the studying recently Kagome had been just as sedentary as me, so I'd felt a little confident. But as soon as we set out Kagome had tricked me, running in the opposite direction to the bus stop and taking advantage of my confusion to board the bus I'd been too flabbergasted to chase after before it drove off. I'd thought maybe if I took another one with a different route then taken a shortcut on foot that maybe I could catch up, but when I looked at the bus schedule and the emptying road, I saw that there would be no more buses for the day to save me from this mess. So now, with only my pride and my school shoes to propel me, I was walking.

I mashed pavement as hard as I could but after Kagome's little stunt, the cleaning and how tired I'd been lately, I just couldn't muster the energy to really hurry. So when I finally reached the Higurashi shrine, it was well after dark.

The lights in the front were off, so I figured everyone had moved around to the back for dinner. Gravel crunched under my black leather school shoes as I reached the backyard, and lo and behold, the lights were on in the kitchen. Having found signs of life, I figured I was in no hurry, so I breathed in the warm night air of early summer and looked around.

It was a beautiful property, if somewhat modest for a shrine. The Higurashi house was painted a cool beige, and in the back there was an impressive tree Kagome had told me was called Goshinboku. It was tall and the trunk was fat with life, but Kagome had said that it had been around for at least fifty years so the size wasn't much of a surprise. What did surprise me was the shed a little ways from the God tree.

It was somewhat removed from the rest of the property and the dark, dingy wood was stark against the rest of the sterling Higurashi property. I had only been to Kagome's house a few times, and of those she had always been careful to lead me directly in through the front door and stay with me until I'd left. In light of that it was odd that Kagome had been so lax this time, but I supposed all the stress had finally gotten to her. She couldn't keep track of everything all the time, and where was the harm? I could hardly get into trouble just traipsing around her backyard.

So I took no heed, crunching gravel up to the shed and putting my school bag down by the door. My breaths stilled and I looked back at the lights in the kitchen.

They wouldn't be upset if looked around right?

I was beginning to feel a little like a trespasser because I'd never explicitly been escorted into the shed.

I clenched my fists and huffed.

I was being silly. Of course they wouldn't be upset, they didn't need to take me to every room on the property to demonstrate my welcome. I should be smart enough to intuit which rooms seemed off limits and which didn't, and a shed seemed relatively harmless.

I turned and walked through the open door into the darkness.

There was a wooden sort of platform that I was standing on, a wooden ladder and directly below that a sunken space with a wooden well in the middle. I tread slowly to the stairs, my steps light and unsure of the integrity of the dingy wooden floor, but it held. As I walked down the steps, a breeze ruffled the pale grey, pleated skirt of my school uniform against my upper thighs but I didn't think to question its origin in this mostly enclosed space on a relatively still night.

I approached the well and transfixed, I ran my finger along the dark wood of the top that had smoothed with age. My white button-down blouse flapped against my sternum though I'd tucked it into my waistband and my dark brown hair stirred, brushing my tailbone through my skirt. The sweat I hadn't felt beading on my neck and forehead cooled and I sighed in relief.

I wanted more of the wind, I was getting so warm.

I leaned over the lip of the well, shorter locks of my hair falling over my shoulders to sway in the breeze.

Maybe if I just leaned a little closer I could feel the wind better.

"Hisako!"

"Wha-" I whipped around to see Kagome standing in the doorway with her back against the light, her face stricken, and my hand slipped.

"Huh?" My hair flew into my eyes obscuring Kagome, then the ceiling, then I could see nothing at all but I could feel everything.

I was weightless and the wind was tearing at my clothes. The temperature was rapidly dropping and the crown of my head throbbed, as if I was already anticipating the impact. My chest hurt and my breath caught in my throat.

I feel like the usual thing people say in this sort of situation is that they're too young to die, or some other tripe like that. But I didn't feel I was too good for death so much that I was too much of a coward to even wrap my head around it enough to bargain. I expected death but I refused to understand what it would mean.

All I understood was the darkness.

It was all-encompassing, crushing and yet intangible as the air the wind kept stealing from my lungs.

I didn't even know any more if my eyes were open or shut, but then suddenly there was light. Everywhere.

It was blinding at first, but as it dimmed just enough to stop burning my retinas and my eyes adjusted, I saw that it was a soft pink.

Brilliant but gentle like the surface of cherry blossom petals.

I looked around, pushing my thick dark hair from my face to find the source of it, but there was none. There was no beginning or end to it. It just was.

I wondered how such a phenomenon could have occurred on earth, but then I grimaced.

Maybe this wasn't earth. Maybe I'd been so out of it that I hadn't noticed when I'd hit the bottom of the well, just as I hadn't noticed I was no longer falling but floating.

My skirt flapped gently against my pale thighs and I examined my school shoes.

I was dead, so why was I still in uniform? Was this one of those things where I appeared as I expected myself to be; as I'd seen myself last? If I was dead, I felt like I shouldn't even necessarily be humanoid anymore. I didn't really need the shape if I wasn't to be saddled with the burdens of human functioning.

I turned to float on my stomach, peeking through the holes in my hair at the pink abyss. I wanted to see where I was going; I didn't like the idea of just floating along to oblivion, but there was nothing to see but pink light. I swept out my arms and legs, but it didn't seem I could swim myself out of this either.

I was trying to think of a new strategy to break the monotony or at least glean some information when the light began to fade and my face went cold as the blood drained from it.

Why was the light going away - did that mean I was going to hell?

I clenched my fists and I could feel nothing but the pain in my chest as my heart tried to rip a hole through my rib cage.

But I was a good girl. I'd never stolen or killed anyone. I admit that I'd tried to cheat on tests a few times but I'd always felt terrible and apologized after. That wasn't enough reason to send someone to hell, right?

The light faded with my hope and again I was left with only blackness as my feet touched down on solid ground. My nails bit into my palms and I tried to ignore my chest, willing my eyes to adjust because I didn't know what else to do but rely on the senses I'd always used in life.

I supposed hell was quiet then, but I couldn't imagine what purpose damned spirits would have for solid ground.

I was too scared to hold out my arms and feel for anything, so I strained my eyes in the darkness until they hurt. But eventually my efforts paid off and I could see the face of a rock wall. It was made in that clever way some people used to build before they had cement or other adhesive substances: with rocks on top of each other, hand-picked so that they would fit into each other's spaces like a jigsaw puzzle.

I turned around, the soles of my leather shoes slapping softly against the smooth rock floor. The wall formed a small, open topped square, being just a little wider than the width of my arms when they were spread.

This was an odd space to keep a damned soul – like solitary confinement for all eternity.

I stiffened and looked up without really seeing, biting my lip.

Surely I hadn't done anything in life so terrible to deserve eternal solitary confinement?

I flopped onto my bottom, pulling my knees to my chest and wrapping my arms around them as I kept staring upwards, my eyes stinging.

I was an only child; I was used to being alone. Oftentimes I preferred it. But human beings are a social species and dead or alive, I still felt like one.

My vision blurred but I blinked away the moisture.

I didn't know if I could be alone for that long. I couldn't even reflect on what I'd done because I didn't know what had landed me in hell in the first place.

My eyes focused for a moment and I registered pinpricks of light above, as well as green.

There were vines.

I stood up and my eyes followed the vines to where they ended just at my forehead.

How on earth had I not noticed the stars and the vines?

Shaking my head at my useless thoughts, I reached for a vine and pulled on it. They seemed strong enough to support my weight, but would I have the upper body strength to haul myself out of here?

I looked down at my slender, but soft thighs and scowled. Why had I never taken up a sport? I didn't even do anything with the spare time but go home or hang out with Kagome.

Kagome.

I tiled my head up to the relative light of the night sky, my facial muscles relaxing into a frown.

Kagome had seen me fall – she probably thought I was dead.

"Kagome?"

I listened but either I was too far down for her to hear me or she'd already run off to call an ambulance.

I cringed.

God why did I have to get myself into this mess? Now I'd have to deal with an ambulance I didn't need, pay back Kagome's family for calling them and apologize for snooping around.

I sighed.

Kagome would never invite me over again.

Either way, I couldn't stay down here forever. I needed to at least try to get myself out of this well and mitigate the situation. So I pushed back my worries to deal with them later and reached for the vine again, planting one foot on the rough stone and hoisting myself up when I found purchase. I grabbed the vine with my other hand and found a foothold in a looped vine slightly higher up. From what I could see, the rest of the vines were affixed to the wall, so I wouldn't have to strain my thin arms holding myself at an angle all the way up.

I pulled myself as close to the wall as I could, then reached for another looped hand hold, and soon I was scaling the wall. It was certainly one of the most difficult physical exercises I'd ever put myself through but it still wasn't as bad as I'd thought it'd be, and I suspected the pressure I'd put on myself to hurry up and get out unscathed had made it a bit more trying than it strictly had to be.

When I reached the vine covered lip of the well, I was tired but determined as ever and heaved my sweaty, panting body over the lip to roll onto the grass.

Wait, grass?

I sat up and looked around, the barest breeze drying the sweat dripping from my chin as I noticed the absence of the shed and the shrine.

All other sound was drowned out by the blood beating in my ears as I struggled to my knees.

Where was the shed, the gravel, the shrine?

Where was Kagome?

Where was I?

I stood on shaky legs still damp from my exertion and turned in a full circle.

Nothing. Nothing was the same but Goshinboku. Where was the shrine? It couldn't have gotten up and walked off – buildings didn't work that way.

I kept my eyes on my unfamiliar surroundings but tried my best to settle my breathing. I didn't have to panic – I knew where the God tree was, so that was a place to start. I couldn't find the shrine but maybe I could find the road if I used the tree as a frame of reference.

I huffed a breath and clenched my fists.

I would not sit here and wallow in useless, destructive emotions when I could still move. There was no one else around as far as I could see, so if I wanted help I would have to help myself.

I walked to the tree, and looked back at the well.

I sort of remembered what angle the road had been in relation to the shed and the tree, so I only had to go in that direction.

I swallowed hard and looked back at the tree.

I didn't want to leave it – it was the only familiar thing I could see. It felt stupid to walk away from something like that.

I clenched my teeth.

I didn't have a choice; I couldn't stay here. I had virtually no survival skills and some part of me still expected that someone would come to look for me so I had to at least try to find other people.

I laid my palm and forehead on the trunk of the tree, curling into it.

I had to be brave, Goshinboku couldn't protect me.

I rubbed my fingers against the bark, seeping in the warmth I found there, and soon I was turning my head to press my cheek to it.

Were trees always warm?

I looked up into the massive canopy and took a small step back, frowning.

No, I didn't think they were.

I sighed and turned away, walking toward where I thought the road was hiding. I had enough problems as it was, I didn't have time to be worrying about strange trees that literally warmed to me.

~o0o~

For all of the five minutes I'd been walking, I'd seen a startling lot of foliage for a society as technologically advanced and industrialization happy as ours. It was very odd to see a forest this thick and untouched in an area as urban as the one I'd thought I lived in. Had the government decided to make such a big gesture as to keep a nature reserve this prolific just to please the tree-huggers, they would have made a production of it. Announcing it until the public got tired of hearing about it so that no one would doubt that their tax money had gone to contributing to 20% of the earth's oxygen. It was very odd that I'd never heard anything about this place, and I don't think I'd seen anything like it from Kagome's back yard.

There were even birds chirping and I could see insects marching along on tree trunks.

Some part of me was comforted by the noise because it signified life, but at the same time the loneliness and panic was pressing at my chest more the deeper I walked into this forest.

Why couldn't I find any people?

Why hadn't I found the road yet?

I was sure that I hadn't had to wander this far when I'd come to Kagome's house. I hadn't even found a drop in elevation to give a hint of where the steps to the shrine had been.

What was going on – what had I gotten myself into?

My foot cracked a twig and I flinched.

The grass had been muffling my footsteps for the most part up to this point. And the birdsong had been overshadowing most everything else. That twig snapping shouldn't have been so loud.

I kept walking, some instinct telling me not to give away that I'd noticed anything was wrong even as I strained my ears.

The birds had gone silent.

I'd read in a book once that the forest is only ever quiet when something large or threatening stomps through it. I had been being quiet, and the earlier birdsong was testament to the fact that there was nothing threatening about me, so there must be something else coming.

This was the forest's warning.

My breathing picked up but I kept up my pace.

I didn't know what was out there, if they were human or something else, but either way I wanted to hide my intelligence so I'd keep what little advantage I had. Besides, I didn't know if whoever or whatever it was, was after me. I didn't necessarily need to panic.

I cut off my breath – it'd been getting too loud to hear, and I didn't want whatever was out there to hear me panicking.

A twig snapped and I tripped over the root of a tree, just barely catching myself. I looked down but I didn't see any broken wood.

That hadn't been me.

I started walking again.

I had to keep calm so I could think of contingency plans in case of anything – not that anything was coming to mind at present.

Why couldn't Kagome have been here? She could have helped me come up with something.

I clenched my fists and my brow ridge tensed.

No. I was glad Kagome wasn't here. If anything bad was to happen, I wouldn't want it happening to her too. It was better this way.

A bush behind me rustled and I gasped, turning on my heel to face the sound.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** **Just a heads up in case you wondered, I wrote this assuming some things, like: the Final Act hasn't happened, but Kikyo has decided to leave well enough alone and finally stay in the ground like a normal dead person. Also, I haven't an editor as such; I edit it myself and periodically reread the whole thing to make sure the previous chapters work with the new ones I write, so if I miss any errors, I'm sorry.**

* * *

 **Chapter 2**

A huge boar at least twice my height burst from the foliage.

It was black and bristling, and so fevered the air around it almost steamed – I couldn't even begin to figure out how something so big had hidden from me behind some bushes and trees.

It snorted and the hot, fetid breath blew my hair behind me, whipping up my skirt.

I didn't know what to do.

Should I run? Probably not, despite its size I could tell from the bursting muscle under its hide that it could far more than outrun me.

I couldn't hide – it'd seen me and it could probably sniff me out.

Should I play dead? No, I barely believed that worked with bears, much less gigantic mutant boars that prowled in the night for lost, idiot girls like me.

I couldn't think of any more options and as I looked up at it, I'd never more felt that being 5'2.5" for a seventeen-year-old was just too small. I'd never felt so insignificant in my life.

I locked my knees and clenched my fists.

I might be small, and scared out of my wits, but I at least didn't want to die as small as I felt, so I did the helpless girl thing and screamed. I screamed so loud my ears rang and the vibration rubbed my throat raw.

Frankly I was quite proud of myself – I'd never needed to scream like that in my life and I hadn't really been sure I could do it. It was nice to know I was at least capable, but the boar didn't seem to agree with me.

If anything, it looked as though it'd taken the scream for a war cry.

It squealed, spewing spittle and hot breath everywhere then it was after me, tearing up chunks of grass and dirt from under its hooves as it charged. Little more than a demonic silhouette glinting in the moonlight with senseless, angry glass eyes as it sped to me.

I turned on my heel and sprinted, screaming like a banshee as I went.

At first I couldn't think at all past my unadulterated terror and my dogged concentration on the shadowy ground to make sure I didn't do the other stupid girl thing and trip when I was being chased. But then I realized that I was doing quite well for myself – all things considered.

If anyone had missed my scream before, they were sure to hear me now like an alarm if there actually was anyone around. And I definitely wouldn't be able to outrun this thing, but at the very least someone might hear me raising hell and come to help before it caught up with me.

The snorting beast was so close now that even though I was running its breath was enough to blow the hair from behind me up into my face and my cheeks went numb.

No one was coming, were they?

There hadn't been anyone around to hear me.

I was going to die out here, alone.

I heard wind whistling, then a strange wet sound, and suddenly two somethings heavier than me but lighter than the boar hitting the ground. And as I ran my hair fell behind me, undisturbed but for my own movements.

Something had changed.

I was almost too scared to stop running but I needed to know what was happening, and if the boar had tried something funny, it wouldn't make a difference if I was running or not soon.

I knew I couldn't calm myself, not like this, so I held my breath rather than try to quash it and stopped running to turn around.

The boar was on the ground, but it'd been cleaved in two and the grass was dark with its hot blood.

Still not breathing I scanned the area as tremors began to isolate parts of my body until my eyes landed on a boy.

He was tall, at least a head taller than me, and he looked to be about my age or a year or two older. His head was topped with small dog ears and the pale silver hair that hung below it was long and thick. The length of it was lit up like opal in the moonlight as it waved down past his bottom. He had black, slashing brows which hooded large, clear amber eyes. They were fringed with full, black lashes. His smooth skin was only a few shades darker than mine and through his messy bangs I could see that he had a wide, but sweetly rounded forehead. His nose was small, but straight and upturned and his cheekbones were high but not too prominent. The mouth that smirked at me looked soft and was a deep pink, and fangs pressed into a full lower lip. His jaw and chin were chiselled but narrow, his neck slender but strong and his lean body was cloaked in a red haori and hakama. His posture was confident but indolent, and he gripped a large white sword - the biggest I'd ever seen – but the strong fingers that curled around the hilt were tipped with claws. As were his bare feet.

He pulled the sword from where he'd stuck it in the ground and slipped it into the much smaller scabbard as he approached me, both the sheer girth of the sword as well as the white tuft of fur by its hilt disappearing in the process, "You ok?"

His voice was pleasantly rough and deep but hardly a baritone.

I curled my fingers and bit the inside of my cheek, urging the feeling to come back to it even as the tremors spread to alienate me from most of my motor functioning, "Yeah. Thank you."

I willed myself to calm down as he moved until he was within a foot of me. Now was not the time to be jumpy. This boy had saved me and he might look a bit strange but I was grateful to him and I didn't have the energy to make a fuss of his appearance – nor did I think he'd appreciate it much.

He looked down at me, a small frown pulling at the corners of his mouth, "You shouldn't be out here alone."

I contemplated my feet, past my shaking knees, unable to look into his eyes any longer, "Sorry." I was shy, but hardly socially inept, and I was proud of myself for having been able to make the friends I had. But I wasn't very comfortable around boys on a good day, especially beautiful ones, and I was way past my limit of stuff I could handle as it was.

"Don't worry about it. I got here in time."

I hummed at him but I'd only graduated from staring at my feet to absently scanning the forest around him.

He huffed a small laugh, "You're safe now; I've got you."

My eyes whipped to him and the corner of his mouth tipped up as he put a hand behind my back and knees to lift me into his arms.

I squeaked and gripped the front of his shirt, "Wha-"

He was already looking ahead, "Come on. Let me get you back to the village."

I gripped his shirt so hard my shaking hands went numb and my breath stalled in my chest.

Village? What village? Why did he use such an antiquated word like village to refer to a human population?

Surely he meant city.

Wait. Human?

What made me think he was bringing me to a human village? I wasn't even sure _he_ was human.

His head tipped down to me, his long silvery white bangs brushing my face where it'd almost been turned into his neck, "Hey, are you alright? Something wrong?"

I forced my numb, shaking fingers to unclench and I breathed.

How much could I tell him? I didn't know what to do.

I curled my fingers together in my lap, so they'd clutch me instead.

Either way, I needed to keep quiet until I knew more. I couldn't make him think anything was wrong or he might not take me back to the 'village'. I would go with him and see what it was like then hopefully I would know what to do.

"Yes I'm fine, just jumpy from the attack."

He sniffed, his brows creasing ever so slightly, "I told you, you're fine."

I hummed another response and tried to focus on calming down. I'd never get out of this if I didn't stop freaking out. I needed to be able to act, then I could freak out after.

I hadn't noticed he was still looking down at me until I felt his long bangs brush my nose, "What's your name? I haven't seen you around before."

I tilted my chin to look up at him, mindful of how close our mouths were, "Hisako. You?"

He smirked, "My name is Inuyasha." Then he took off with me.

Trees blurred as he ran, the wind tearing at my cheeks, my hair, my eyes.

Was he even running?

What was this? I'd never seen someone move this fast before.

Was this the speed planes moved or was he faster?

What was this boy?

He jumped up onto a tree branch and I whipped my hands to clutch his thick red shirt as my stomach dropped out. Before I could even really summon the fear of whether or not he'd miss from the bullet speed we'd been going at, he softly landed.

I couldn't move I was shaking so hard, and my mind was perfectly blank as tears from the wind spilled down my cheeks.

Inuyasha turned to put his back to the trunk and shifted to cradle me in his crossed legs instead. The hand that had supported my back now rubbed it in small circles and his bangs brushed my face again, "You sure you're ok?"

My affirmative hum was weak, shaky and I loosed my fingers from his haori again.

He sighed, "Don't worry, I'll take you to Kaede and she'll fix you right up."

I tipped my head up to him and half-whispered, "Kaede?"

His hand on my back stilled and his other wrapped around me to rub gently at my upper arm, "Yeah, the crazy old bat of a priestess in the village. She gets the hell on my nerves a lot, but she always feeds us and she'll help you out just like she did when Kagome first came."

I stilled, "Kagome?"

His face creased in worry at my sudden stillness, "Are you sure you're okay?"

I clenched my fingers together in my lap, my eyes intense, "No not really. You know Kagome?"

His hand on my upper arm rubbed a little more firmly, "Yeah, you know her right? You're wearing the same clothes she always does."

I dropped my chin to hide my stinging eyes and moisture dropped onto the hands that had resumed shaking, "Yeah, I know her."

Kagome.

I'd found a person who knew Kagome.

I could finally stop.

Just stop.

His hand gripped my upper arm while his other furiously resumed rubbing my back, "Hey, what's wrong? Does your stomach hurt or something?"

I was so tired.

I laid my cheek against his chest and breathed a sigh.

I could finally just stop.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:If it wasn't already evident: I'm more excited about this story than is likely healthy. So surprise! You get a moderately early post! I encourage for you to comment, I love to know what you think - it might also influence my ideas of how I'll proceed. Also, I tried to avoid info dumping as much as possible, but I had to write the chapter like I was assuming the reader didn't really have any background information just in case there are people like that who end up reading this. Please be patient with me - I promise it doesn't happen often.**

* * *

 **Chapter 3**

My vision was blurry when my eyes opened so I tried to mentally take stock of the rest of me. I was supine on what felt to be a coarse sheet of cloth on a hardwood floor. Nothing hurt but I was starting to feel a little sore from all the stress I'd been through before, and as I sighed I felt the black hole that was my stomach.

"Ah, I see that ye are awake."

My head whipped to the left to see a stout old woman dressed in a white kosode and red nagabakama. Her back was hunched with age and her weathered face was lined, but the one eye that I could see was brown and kind.

Why was a woman who was dressed like she came from feudal Japan wearing a pirate eye patch? Seems she got her costumes a little mixed up.

"Where am I?" I struggled to sit up, my weak arms shaking from the strain.

The old woman looked away from me to stir something in a huge cast iron pot, "The village, child. When Inuyasha had brought ye, ye'd been unconscious. I imagine ye must have been through quite an ordeal."

I winced and the dried tracks of my tears pulled at my cheeks, "Yeah."

More lines depressed the cheek I could see, deepening others and making something of a network as the corner of her mouth lifted, "I took a look and ye should be fine, but ye must be hungry."

I looked down to the creased fabric of my skirt and pressed a light hand to my sunken stomach, "Yeah, thank you."

The old woman huffed a laugh and I heard metal and wood clinking, "I have prepared stew so ye may have some of that."

I turned my head to her but dropped my eyes as my cheeks warmed, "Thank you."

I heard her shuffling about and soon she was kneeling in front of me, a bowl of the steaming liquid proffered in her right hand and a wooden spoon in the left, "I am Kaede, the priestess of this village as my sister was before me. By what name are ye called child?"

I looked up to her gaze to accept them both but didn't drop my eyes again or move to eat the stew, "Hisako."

"Hisako," she smiled again and sat back on her heels, "a pretty name indeed."

Having introduced myself, I dropped my eyes again, "Thank you."

"Ye wear the same strange clothes as Kagome. Do ye know her?"

My stomach forgotten, I put down the bowl and spoon to clench my fists in my lap as I looked up at the old priestess, "You know Kagome too?" My face crumpled, "Where is she?"

Kaede's eyes softened and she picked up the bowl and spoon to push them gently back into my hands, "Ye needn't fret child, she will likely be here soon."

I dropped my head to look down at the cooling stew, my shoulders tensing.

I felt like a lost child, waiting for her mother to pick her up. I was almost an adult, so why couldn't I act like it?

A gnarled hand touched my back and I lifted my head to look at Kaede's wizened face, "It will be alright child, but ye must eat if ye are to get stronger."

I looked back to the warm stew in my hands and dipped the spoon in, "Right, thank you."

The gnarled hand rubbed my back then she was standing and shuffling away from me.

~o0o~

The stew was so hot and delicious I almost asked for seconds but then I stopped.

How could I be thinking of stuffing my face at a time like this? I needed to find Kagome. These people knew her so clearly she'd been to this strange parallel universe before, but I worried about her. She must have been so scared, thinking I was dead, then beside herself if she realized I'd instead fallen through to this strange, barely hospitable place.

I put down my empty bowl and spoon and held my knees to my chest.

I didn't want her to blame herself for the mess I'd gotten into, but I knew she probably would.

I looked up to the darkness that filled the frame of the door.

It was still night so I likely hadn't been out long, but that just meant that Kagome was probably stumbling around those dangerous woods alone in the dark.

No. I had to do something.

I pushed myself to my knees. I had to go find her. I definitely couldn't do it alone, but maybe I could ask that boy who'd saved me to help. I would not leave Kagome out there to fend for herself.

The sound of hurried footsteps was soon punctuated with the high sound of a young, feminine voice and I froze on my knees.

"Kaede?!"

Then she was in the doorway, like a beacon in the night.

"Kaede? Inuyasha told me he found a girl lost in the woods and brought her h-"

Her scanning eyes stopped on me, rumpled and on my knees nearly in the back corner of the hut and her face crumpled, "Hisako!"

She dashed to me and I raised my hands to her, my voice nowhere to be found. She dropped to her knees and wrapped her arms around my waist, "Hisako, oh my god I'm so sorry."

My hands reached around to cling to the material covering her back and I dropped my head to her shoulder, whispering, "Kagome."

She hugged me tighter but even though it made it hard to breathe I didn't stop her, "I'm so sorry. I should have waited for you. I should have never left you alone," she pulled back just a little to run her eyes over my worn face, "Are you okay?"

I pulled her back to me and clutched her shirt tighter, "Yes I'm fine."

My shoulders hunched as I clung, "And don't you dare blame yourself – none of this is your fault. I was the idiot who poked my nose where I shouldn't have."

Her shoulders shook, "But-"

"No," I pulled back to stare her in the eyes, my gaze intense, "This is not your fault. It's mine. I saw the lights on in the kitchen but I ignored them to snoop. If I'd just gone straight to you like I should have, I wouldn't be in this mess."

"Come now child, it's not so bad as all that is it?"

We both turned to look at Kaede who'd been sitting with her back to the opposite wall, watching us.

"Ye are unharmed, if a little shaken, and ye've been given the opportunity to meet new people – to see a new place. This is an occasion to learn, ye mustn't view it negatively."

I deflated at her soft, weathered face and sighed, "Yes, I suppose so."

Kagome pulled back from me to turn to Kaede and bowed her head, "Thank you so much for taking care of her Kaede."

The old woman laughed as she stood, shuffling to the door, "T'was no trouble at all Kagome, she is a sweet girl."

My cheeks warmed and I dropped my head to hear the old woman shuffling out of the hut, "I will go and tell little Shippou that ye have returned. He has been asking when ye would be back with the candy ye promised."

Kagome straightened as she breathed a laugh, sitting back on her heels, "Thanks Kaede."

Then we were alone.

"Kagome."

She turned to me, her pale face still repentant.

"That boy, who saved me."

Her eyes lit from within, "Inuyasha? What, was he rude to you?" She frowned, "He can be obnoxious sometimes but I promise he's really a nice guy."

I took in her animation and I studied her carefully, "No, he was nice to me."

She sighed, her dark brows evening over her chocolate brown eyes, "Oh good."

I gripped the sleeve of my shirt at the wrist. Was it okay to ask this? Would it be rude to? How would I even go about it?

"What- how…he looks different."

Kagome tensed, then quite suddenly all the fight seemed to leave her and her face was drawn, "Yeah. He's different."

I gripped my sleeve tighter and forced my vocal chords to cooperate, "Why?"

She sighed, "He's a half-demon."

I stiffened, "A what?"

Her sad eyes lifted to me, "A half-demon."

The blood drained from my face, "There are such things as demons?"

She winced, "Yeah. Inuyasha told me about the boar that attacked you – that had been a demon."

My breaths were barely a whisper and I looked down to the floor, "Oh."

"But Inuyasha's not bad. I swear he won't hurt you."

I looked up to see Kagome's miserable face, "No I know. I told you, he was nice to me."

She let out a breath and smiled at me, "Oh. Then what's wrong?"

I swallowed hard, "There are demons in this world, and I know they're not all as nice as Inuyasha. What is this place Kagome?"

She bit her lip and looked down, "When you fell through the well, you were taken back in time to the feudal era."

My hands dropped to my sides, lifeless, "The what?"

She swallowed, "The feudal era. Five hundred years in the past."

My face slackened as I flopped back onto my calves, "Five…"

Her eyes lifted to mine, pained as they were, "Yes. I'm not sure how you got here; why the well took you here, but I'm glad it did or you probably would have died."

I tried to find some saliva in my mouth to speak, "But why are you here Kagome? Why do these people know you? You've been coming here haven't you – enough for one of the children to be expecting souvenirs from you."

She winced and dropped her eyes again, "Yeah. I'm sorry I never told you about it, but you shouldn't have ever had to be mixed up in this."

My brows lowered over my eyes and I clenched my jaw, "But why have you been coming here? This place is not safe Kagome."

She bit the full, rosy mauve of her lower lip and wrung her hands, "I know, but I don't have much choice."

My shoulders dropped and all I could feel was the strain in my eyes as I stared hard at her, "Why don't you have a choice? Is someone forcing you to come back here?"

Her eyes flashed to mine, like saucers in her small, heart-shaped face, "No! No one is forcing me to do anything. I have to do this, it's my fault that things got messed up so I have to help fix them."

My brows relaxed and I tilted my head just a little to the side, "'Messed up'? What happened?"

Kagome's eyes shifted down to the side, "When I first came here, it was because a centipede demon sensed something called the Shikon jewel in me and pulled me here through the well. Many people want it because it gives tremendous power and when it's complete it can grant one wish. Any wish at all."

I frowned.

"The centipede demon took the jewel from me and after some confusion it was taken by a crow demon. I tried to shoot down the crow to get the jewel back, but I hit it instead and it shattered."

My eyes widened.

"So now I have to help gather the jewel shards again before they fall into the wrong hands and change the course of history."

The breath left me. Jesus this was heavy.

"How did the jewel get into you in the first place, and how did that centipede get it out?"

She winced, "That's kind of a long story, but the gist of it is that a priestess, Kaede's elder sister, was supposed to guard it. But when a terrible demon, one of the strongest of them all, came after her to take it, some things happened and to protect the jewel she had it burned with her body when she died."

She paused, looking up at me.

"I am the reincarnation of that priestess."

I furrowed my brow, "So you were born with it in you?"

"Yes."

My forehead was starting to hurt from all this glaring, "But that's not how biology works. From what you're saying it doesn't seem she even had any children so it's not like the jewel was passed down through them. And either way, foreign objects don't just travel with genetics to get remade with a new baby. None of this makes any sense."

She sighed, "I know it doesn't seem to and I can't really explain it, but the jewel is magic. It just happened."

I thought for a moment, then levelled a look at Kagome, "You didn't tell me how the centipede got the jewel out of you."

Her eyes shifted to the side, "Ah, well..."

"Kagome."

"She was angry, so she ripped it out of my side."

My shoulders that had risen in my agitation dropped, "She ri-"

Kagome was already standing to walk to the door, "Don't worry about it, I should go find Shippou anyway."

I shot up and grabbed her hand, "Wait - don't leave. I've been worried sick about you, please don't leave me."

She turned, her face soft as she reached to hug me, "It's alright now. We're both alright. I won't leave you."

I dropped my head to her shoulder and gripped her to me, "Thank you." I breathed, "I'm really happy you're okay."

I could hear the smile in her soft voice, "I'm happy you're okay too."

I stepped back then pulled her to sit with me again, "So if you came through the well before because you had the jewel in you, how did you come through today?"

She pulled a clear little jar strung around her neck from her white blouse, "The easy answer would be that the shards we've found let me pass through," she dropped the jar, her hand coming to rest in her lap again, "but honestly I don't know. Around the time I first met Inuyasha, the only shard we had was stolen by a demon who controlled the hair of the dead, but I was still able to go back home and Inuyasha was able to come to the future to bring me back here."

Kagome lightly chewed on her bottom lip and turned to look absently out into the night through the open door, "Actually, I wonder if Inuyasha being able to use the well doesn't have something to do with the prayer beads?"

This just kept getting more complicated. Seems it'd been quite an eventful life Kagome had been keeping so under wraps.

"What are prayer beads?"

She released her lip but her eyes remained thoughtful, "Some beads Kaede enchanted to help control Inuyasha when he was still a little wild."

I wasn't even going to think about what she meant by 'wild', "Control him how?"

"With the word of subjugation," her eyes finally reconnecting with mine, "when I say it, it physically restrains him if he gets out of control." She shrugged a thin shoulder, "I figure if the well works for me, then that connection to me might make it work for him too."

I was silent for a moment, processing this, then I furrowed my brow, "I find it hard to believe that the well-functioning for you is an accident though, it doesn't feel right to just dismiss it as happenstance. I think maybe you being the reincarnation of that priestess might have something to do with it."

Kagome hummed her acquiescence, "Maybe."

I rubbed my fingertips lightly into the skin of my thigh, trying to use the physical sensation to help ground my emotions, "But then why was I able to get through?"

Her face was grave as she looked at me, "I don't know, but I'm betting we're going to find out soon."

Before I could divine something to say to that, a ball of sand coloured fur bounded into the room. I lifted a hand as it shot for Kagome but before I could stop it, she caught it in her arms. The fur stretched out and I saw that it was attached to a tiny boy in a pale blue kosode with white polka dots, a navy blue hakama and a tan vest-like haori.

"Kagome, you're back!"

She laughed, "Hi Shippou."

His little arms reached for her shoulders and he was so fidgety he was almost climbing her, "Did you bring the chocolate Kagome? Did you?"

Her eyes were soft as she looked down at him, "No I'm sorry Shippou. I didn't get a chance to. I had to hurry here to help my friend."

He frowned, then lifted his button nose to sniff the air. When he turned to me I saw that he had a mop of reddish-brown hair and his green eyes seemed to nearly take up half his face, "Who are you?"

When he spoke I saw two little fangs poking out of his mouth.

I wasn't used to his clear deviation from humanity but he was just so small, the size of a baby only a few months old though he looked to be at least 7 or 8, I couldn't help but smile at him, "I'm Hisako. Kagome's friend."

He wriggled from Kagome's arms and the little paws he had for feet made hardly a sound as he padded over to look up at me. He sniffed the air again then looked into my eyes, "You're pretty."

Heat shot to my cheeks and my eyes widened. Struggling to remember my manners I smiled again, "Thank you."

His eyes were shrewd as they scanned over me, "Do _you_ have any chocolate?"

A small laugh bubbled out of my chest, "No sweetheart I'm sorry. My journey here was a bit unexpected."

He pouted and returned to curl up in Kagome's arms, but it seemed he couldn't sit still for long as he looked back up at her, "Kagome, why is she here? You've never brought any of your other friends here before."

Kagome's face fell as she looked everywhere but at me and the boy, "She fell through the well Shippou."

"But I thought that only worked for you."

She sighed, "I thought so too, but we're going to find out how this happened and keep her safe."

He stood in her lap, looking up at her, "Does that mean she's going to travel with us?"

Travel?

I hadn't even considered how Kagome had managed to get the other shards, but the idea of travel made sense. People would likely have found some and scattered with them to the four winds. But in the chaos of all the information I'd been swamped with, I hadn't thought about what I would do here or if I'd even be able to get back.

I admit I kind of wanted to try going back to the modern era, but at the same time I hated the idea of leaving Kagome here. Her sense of responsibility had bound her to this place and I didn't want her to shoulder that burden alone. We might not know exactly how or why I'd managed to come to this place, but maybe it'd happened for a reason bigger than my reckless curiosity.

Kagome hadn't yet answered as she turned the question over in her mind, but I'd already decided.

"Kagome?"

She looked up at me, clearly not having expected me to speak.

"I'm coming with you."

Her spine shot ramrod straight and her eyes flared wide, "What?"

I stared her in the eyes and maintained my tone, "I'm coming with you."

"What? Why? No you can't – it's not safe."

I quirked an eyebrow, "But it's safe for you?"

She hesitated, "Well- well I travel with the group and they protect me."

"Wouldn't I be travelling with the same group?"

She shifted her eyes and huffed, "But I can do archery, I can defend myself in an emergency."

My eyes softened, "I can learn to use a weapon too, Kagome."

She kept huffing, out of options, then deflated, "What will your parents think?"

I looked down at my lap, "What does your mother think?"

"She…she knows the whole situation. She knows I have a duty to keep coming back here and fix what I did. She's accepted it." She touched my knee, "But you don't have that duty Hisako. You don't have to be here facing danger every day to fix a mistake. You haven't done anything wrong."

I looked up into her soft brown eyes, "But that doesn't mean you should have to do it alone either. I know you have people here to travel with you, but I could help you too. I know it's not really my problem but it feels wrong to know all of this, then leave you here to fend for yourself. Besides, what if I can't get back?"

Her eyes widened, "I hadn't thought of that."

"If I can't go back I'll need something to do anyway. It's better if the something I find to do is the most productive."

She frowned.

"And if I can get back, then I'm at least good for this weekend before my parents start asking questions. After that I can try to work something out…or find some excuse to give them."

She stared hard into my eyes, then when I didn't give she sighed, "Fine," she clenched the fist not touching Shippou, "I just hate the possibility that you'll get hurt."

My smile was bittersweet, "How do you think I feel?"

Throughout this exchange Shippou had been quietly looking up at us, and now that we'd reached a decision he jumped over to my lap and took my hand, looking seriously up into my face, "I look forward to working with you."

The smile split my face and I brought my other hand to cup his downy cheek, "Ditto."

Shippou's little face screwed up at the unfamiliar word, "Kagome, what does-"

A tall man with dark hair was suddenly walking through the doorway with a dark haired woman in tow.

I looked up at them, dropping my arms around Shippou instinctively. My expression was closed as Kagome stood to greet them, "Sango, Miroku."

The man was lightly tanned where the woman was a little paler, his eyes dark and his skin smooth. His bone structure was a touch effeminate, though despite having a slightly wider jaw than Inuyasha he managed to look softer. His hair was a little long with most of it swept back into a short ponytail at the base of his neck, and he wore purple and black monk robes.

He stood back as the woman embraced Kagome, and his eyes were calm though calculating as he surreptitiously looked me over, "Kagome, how have you been? It's good to have you back."

Kagome stepped back from the woman to smile at him and I wondered why she didn't hug him too. Maybe they weren't as close?

Seizing the opportunity her attention gave him, he turned the full force of his gaze on me though by now I was already looking at the woman who curiously watched me from beside Kagome, "Who is this lovely young woman, Kagome?"

The woman's thin, dark brows dropped into a glare but her features smoothed when she saw that I was watching her. Her hair was long, a rich dark brown that she'd gathered into a very loose ponytail that was barely holding on at the end. Her pink kimono and green apron were large on her and casual, but something about the way she held herself belied the civilian her clothes proclaimed. Her dark brown eyes were pleasant, but observant, her skin smooth and her lips and cheeks full. So she was likely fairly young, hardly any older than Kagome or myself but I could see in her eyes that experience had taught her maturity.

"This is my friend Hisako. She fell into the well by accident and we're trying to find out how it brought her here."

The monk sauntered over to me, laying down his staff as he knelt to hold my hands, "What a beautiful young woman you are Hisako. It's very nice to meet you."

I mumbled an appropriate response and watched the woman unable to tear her eyes away from my and the monk's joined hands.

Ah, it seemed she had a thing for the sleazy monk.

"You're such a quiet little flower, are you shy?"

My eyes flitted to the monk and I hummed a response.

He smiled and leaned closer to me, wrapping his other arm around my back even as I stiffened and Shippou jumped from my lap, scampering to Kagome's arms to avoid being squashed in the strange caricature of a hug, "That's quite alright. I'm sure once we've spent some time together you will flourish like the beautiful blossom you are."

I looked back to the woman whose expression had completely shut down. For all intents and purposes she was a brick wall.

This must be so hard for her. How did she stand it? Why did she even want him?

I felt the hand on my back graduate until it was flush with my bottom, the beads around his cloth covered hand pressing into the softness.

My skin prickled as all the little hairs stood up at attention, and my spine whipped into such straightness that it began to arch away from him.

"Why, I think it would be a wonderful idea for us to spend some time together. I would be happy to shower you with attention if that is your wish," his brows lowered, his lids dropping half-mast as he smiled into my stiff face, "and I'm certain you would enjoy it very much. Will you do me the honour of bearing my children?"

The air bled out of me before I could stop it, thin and high, and I pushed hard against his chest. Even as he fell back Sango was marching on him and pulling him by the ear to stand by the door.

Turning to me, she bowed, "I'm terribly sorry about that. He just doesn't know when to stop."

My whole head was hot but I forced my voice into even tones, "Don't worry about it, it's not your fault."

She lifted her head and smiled at me, "My name is Sango," she turned to scowl at the sheepish man on the ground, "and the idiot who just molested you is Miroku."

Seems I'd passed the test by rejecting him.

I worked on forcing the surplus of blood from my head as I stood to shake her hand, "It's nice to meet you."

Kagome sighed, holding a squirming Shippou as she turned to Sango and Miroku, "Guys, I know this is sudden but because Hisako was able to cross over and we're not sure why or if she'll even be able to go back, I've decided to keep her with me. If it's alright with you, she'll travel with us."

The monk's face lit up like Christmas had come early, "How wonderful. Of course we don't mind – the more the merrier."

Sango's bittersweet smile was a stark contrast to Miroku's enthusiasm, "It'll be nice to have you."

I smiled at her before cutting the monk a look that he chose to ignore.

"Hisako's been through a lot today and I'm sure it'd be nice to relax."

I turned to Kagome, "Relax?"

She smiled, "There's a hot spring nearby if you want to go."

I frowned, "I'd love to, but I have nothing on me to bathe with."

Kagome smile widened, "Don't worry, I always keep extras here in case of anything."

"Sango what about you?"

Her eyes positively shone and it baffled me why the lecherous monk would proposition girls when he already had such a pretty one pining after him, "Certainly."


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:So not quite as early a release this week, I'm sorry. Truly, I would have done it minutes into Friday but I'd had a lot of work to do that day and I've just been horrendously tired ever since. But here it is now, I hope you like it. And please, I beg you, leave a comment and tell me if I have any grammatical errors or just how you feel about the story. Feedback is helpful.**

 **Also I feel bad because this is my shortest chapter so far at only six pages, so this week you'll get two chapters for the price of one. Yay!**

* * *

 **Chapter 4**

I leaned back against the sloping rock wall of the hot spring, luxuriating in the warm water as I tried to ignore the weight of my hair piled on top on my head and the prickle at the back of my neck.

"Kagome, have you given much thought to why Hisako had been able to cross over?"

Kagome shook her head, looking down at the water where Shippou and Kirara, Sango's demon kitten, were playing, "I really don't know."

Sango frowned, "But you don't have any ideas?"

Kagome's sigh was almost catching, it was so hopeless, "I'm really not sure. She couldn't have gotten here with the jewel shards because she didn't have any, but maybe when the jewel reincarnated in me it also did in Hisako as a sort of backup plan in case I didn't ever make it here?"

I raised an eyebrow, "Like I'm a second reincarnation of that priestess?" I arched my back, cracking out the kinks as my breasts just peaked out of the water then straightened to level a look at the uncertainty in Kagome's expression, "Somehow I don't think so, but that's a thought."

I reached for the shampoo, letting down my heavy hair, "But Kagome, you'd said that when you came here, the centipede demon had reached out and pulled you in, and then later there was some mix up with demon crows who were after the jewel too. Wouldn't that imply that demons can sort of sense the jewel? In which case I'm fairly certain I would have had far more trouble when I arrived than one demon boar."

Kagome frowned, soaping her arms, "Yeah I guess you're right. So you probably don't have another jewel in you. But then how did you get here?"

I worked the shampoo into my scalp, shivering at the massage, "You were brought here by a demon, and you said there was a very powerful demon here who had caused the whole mess with Kaede's sister." I tipped my head back, washing the shampoo out of my hair. Then, reaching for the conditioner, "When I'd been by the well, it'd been strange. Maybe the demon had something to do with it."

Sango turned to me running her fingers through her own conditioned hair, "What do you mean?"

My hands worked at distributing the conditioner through my thick hair as I thought, "Well I'd had this weird urge to go to it, to touch it. Then I'd gotten so hot all of a sudden and it felt like the well was the only cool place in the shed. I hadn't even thought about going back outside." I combed the conditioner through my hair and began rinsing it out, "I don't know if it's necessarily fair to say this, but it was almost as if something had been calling me. The whole thing had just felt strange."

Sango's hands dropped into the water, obscured by the long skeins of hair floating just below the surface, "So you're saying Naraku called you here?"

I sank down into the water, touching the top with my chin, "Is that the demon's name?"

Sango clenched her jaw and nodded.

I ran my fingers through the water then looked up at the moon through the canopy of trees, "Maybe. I mean, it hadn't exactly felt ominous but I suppose anything's possible now…" I squeezed the water through my fist a few times, concentrating on the feeling rather than my emotions, "but of course I'd prefer if that wasn't the reason."

Kagome scooped water in her hands and washed the soap from herself, frowning, "If that is the reason Hisako, we have to get you back through the well as soon as possible."

I looked down at the water, humming a response as I sat up to curl back against the wall of the spring.

Sango sighed, "It could be any number of reasons. We don't have to assume it's the worst one." Sango looked to my curling disappointment, "Besides, we haven't heard anything strange going on in the area lately, so even if he did call for her he must not really be expecting her."

Kagome's frown didn't lift, "Or he's gotten better at hiding."

I turned more into the wall, pushing water lightly against it to feel it spill over my fingers. I'd lost the will to contribute to this conversation.

Sango breathed, "The fact remains: we don't have enough information to be drawing conclusions." She reached to touch the back of the hand playing with the water, "Hisako, did you notice anything else strange? Before you got here or once you had arrived?"

I looked to her fingers touching my skin so lightly I barely felt them, then sat up as I looked into her imploring face, "In the well, or maybe it was somewhere in between, it was bright. So bright I was nearly blinded by it and I thought I was dead. By the time it registered that I was floating, not falling, the light had dimmed to a light pink."

Kagome's face scrunched a little in consternation, "That's odd. When I pass through the well it's always dark, but lit up in spots like I'm floating through space."

Sango's eyes brightened and the smile that bloomed on her face was warm, "Is there anything else, Hisako?"

I turned to Kagome, watching the expressions shift on her face, "There was something else weird but I didn't know what to think of it."

Her eyes were hesitant but open, "What was it?"

I laid my hand on the surface of the water, remembering, "When I crossed over I saw Goshinboku, but when I touched it, it was warm."

Kagome's face went slack, "Warm?"

I ran my hand over the water, feeling the tree again through it, "Yeah, and before I'd thought to question it, it'd seemed like the most natural thing in the world."

Sango's brows were drawn together the slightest bit but her smile was triumphant, "See, she must be good. Nothing bad could summon such a colour from the well or commune with nature, and what use would Naraku have for something that good?"

I drew my hand to me, plunging it into the water to curl in my lap, "Wait, commune with nature? I wouldn't go that far. I was hardly running around naked or talking to plants."

Amusement bubbled from Sango's chest and her smile was impish, "That may be so, but bringing out warmth in a tree is not nothing."

I had nothing to say to that so I looked down at the water again.

Shippou splashed and groaned, "You guys are so boring today, and this hot spring is making me dizzy. I'm going to go take a walk with Kirara."

I looked up from the water to his flushed, screwed up little face, then to the tiny white kitten's big red eyes. I'd completely forgotten they were there.

Sango smiled at the black eared little kitten, "Are you sure Kirara?"

Its affirmative mewl was high and sweet, then she and Shippou were marching out of the water to dress and leave.

Sango laughed, "I forget how young he is sometimes."

Kagome smiled but I looked to Sango, "How old is he?"

"He's about eight, but sometimes he acts so mature that I forget."

I tilted my head back to Kagome, running my hand across the top of the water again, "But what about his parents?"

Her face darkened and she looked off into the woods where he'd walked, "His father died when he was very young; murdered by some other demons, and his mother had died before even that, I think. So now he stays with us."

The muscles of my cheeks pulled at my mouth, "That's such a nice thing for you to do."

Sango's eyes were warm, "We love him so it's no trouble at all."

"I can see why."

I looked down, squeezing the water through my fist as a question burned in my mind.

Was it really such a bad question? Was I to feel this way every time I wanted to ask it?

I pushed down my hesitation and opened my mouth before I thought better of it, "What is…what kind of demon is Shippou, if I can ask that? Feel free to ignore me if I'm being rude."

Kagome laughed, "You're not being rude Hisako. There's nothing wrong with being curious." Her brown eyes twinkled at me, "He's a fox demon, but sometimes people mistake him for a racoon dog and the poor thing gets so upset."

Sango huffed a laugh, "Yes, he's very proud of his lineage."

I smiled, leaning back to float my head on the water as my chest warmed despite my breasts rising up to the air.

These were good people. A little strange certainly, but good.

I waved my hands in the water to keep myself above the surface as I thought.

I supposed it wouldn't be the worst thing if I had to stay here. Certainly it'd be horrid not having modern medicine, but barring that, it could be rather peaceful and the people had been kind to me.

I rolled my eyes up to the moon.

And at least I wouldn't have to study anymore. Maybe I could train to be a priestess or something…then again maybe I'd just marry a farmer.

Amber eyes glistened in my mind and I was so focused it was almost as if they were looking down at me, the opalescent hair shining in the moonlight.

He'd been kind to me too, if a little gruff, and he was certainly safer and more exciting than a farmer given the time.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

No, I couldn't have him. Never mind that he probably didn't want me – I wasn't sure how Kagome felt about him. And her obvious attachment had me worried.

I opened my eyes and looked to the side.

There was no need to get upset; I didn't even really know if I wanted him yet. Maybe I would marry a farmer…

The sudden noise was so loud it distracted me from my thoughts even through the muffling water and I sat up.

"Shippou what are you doing here? Don't interrupt me when I'm doing important work."

"You're such a pervert, go find something to do other than watch girls bathe. And you're no better Inuyasha!"

"I don't know what you mean Shippou; I'm not watching anyone bathe. I'm guarding the girls to make sure they aren't attacked during their bath. These are dangerous times you know."

"Shut up Shippou, I'm not doing anything wrong!"

There was a short scuffle, a scream, then people were falling from the trees to the dirt path by the hot spring.

Sango and Kagome ducked down till the water covered their noses and I watched the dust cloud clear as the resulting wave lapped the water gently against my collar bones.

The moonlight soon revealed the rumpled, dirty forms of a man in purple and black robes, a child in blue and tan, and the unmistakable red and opal of Inuyasha.

The men struggled to their feet and the monk plucked the child up off the ground, smiling toward us, "Ladies, fancy seeing you here. You know, it's such a nice night that Inuyasha and I thought it'd be a lovely gesture to stay close and make sure you were safe to enjoy your bath."

Sango's face flared fire engine red and she shot up only just enough to free her chin from the water, "Go away Miroku!"

His dulcet smile twitched but held, "Why Sango, there's no need to be so upset. Inuyasha and I were only trying to help."

"Get out of here Miroku!"

My eyes left the cajoling man to stall on the tall amber eyed boy standing next to him.

Inuyasha.

His eyes held mine, as if he was trying to tell me something but I couldn't discern what.

The moonlight lit him up like a fiery pearl, his hair shining almost white like concentrated phosphorescence without the darkness of the sea, or a poisonous flower that only blooms at night. But there was nothing effeminate about the look in his eyes. They burned like amber flames, unmoving and intense and the air was sucked out of my lungs in the combustion.

What was this?

I held his eyes, helpless.

What did he want from me?

His eyes seared me from the inside though he wasn't even near enough to touch me.

What did I want him to want from me?

Heat crept into my cheeks and I dropped my eyes as I clenched my fists.

That was stupid, I'd revealed too much. I hardly knew anything about this boy, I couldn't be giving him such speaking looks.

I looked back up to him, drawn like a moth to the flame and his smile was soft but mischievous. I glared at his cheek and his smile widened a fraction before he turned to look at Kagome who had been watching us.

"Inuyasha why are you here?"

I whipped my head to Kagome, studying her smooth expression.

What had she seen? What did she know?

"I was doing my job."

Her brows drew together, "You know better than to come here when we're bathing. Sit boy."

Inuyasha was flung to the ground and I winced as he struggled under the invisible force that held him down.

So this was the subjugation.

After a few seconds he rose from the dirt to scowl at Kagome, "Damn wench."

His eyes flitted to me for the barest second, liquid fire, then he was turning on his heel and stomping away.

What had that been?


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Here's another chapter a week early. I hope you like it, and please tell me if you do. Also, I do edit these chapters several times: immediately after they're first written, then a few days after that, and again a few days after that, and so on, until I get too impatient and have to post or get caught up writing a new chapter. The last time then is in the hour just before I post. So I try to be meticulous about this but I'm not infallible. So if you see any errors despite my efforts, please forgive me.**

* * *

 **Chapter 5**

I was slow to wake, feeling first the relative cushioning of the small straw futon Kaede had given me the night before, and the stillness of the warm air before I allowed my eyes to open. They fluttered, breaking up the light I wasn't yet ready to see, but as my vision adjusted I lazily tracked the movements of the dust particles travelling on the air in the light of the window. It was nice to know that at least some things hadn't changed.

I scoffed and looked away to the wood and thatch ceiling.

Brownian motion was hardly something bound by time, so if I was looking for comfort – for some reminder of the modern era, I was looking in the wrong place.

I turned my head to the left to see Kagome dozing beside me, swaddled in a sleeping bag. Her lashes lay against pale cheeks and her black hair spilled across the worn wooden floor like thick, spun silk. I watched the translucent skin of her eyelids twitch as she dreamed and her deep even breaths, sighing. She'd been right to worry that my being here might have some connection to Naraku. We might not know definitively that the demon was involved, but the more I thought about it, the more I was convinced that I'd been drawn here; the wind in the well house had been gentle but unnatural.

I dropped my eyes to the details in the fabric of the futon and I rubbed the pads of my fingers lightly into it.

Kaede was a priestess, so she was likely the only one to know anything about unnatural goings on. For all I knew the circumstances of my coming here could have some connection to the spiritual. Asking Kaede would be the smart thing to do.

I squeezed my eyes shut and turned my face into the futon, my fingers pressing hard.

I was a coward.

The old woman likely wouldn't shun me even if my presence here was connected to Naraku considering the colourful characters she willingly pandered to here, but I didn't want her to think less of me if I was only a means to an end for the demon. It shouldn't have mattered to me what she thought when I hardly knew her, but she was so kind to everyone else – I didn't want to be the one scum so foul she couldn't find it within herself to accept me.

I forced my eyes open and stared hard at the light coming through the open doorway.

If there was one thing I knew people respected, it was proactivity. But I wouldn't only do it for Kaede. I wouldn't sit here and let myself be a victim, and something told me that even if I was connected to the demon, Kaede would help me if I actively tried to defend myself from him.

I pushed back the thin, coarse cotton sheet covering me and heaved my weight onto my feet.

It was now or never. It seemed most of the people I'd met had made themselves scarce, so I'd grant my cowardice this one concession and approach Kaede alone.

I hopped over Kagome, my knee-high black socks muffling the impact and I padded to the door, slipping on my shoes.

I took a step out into the light and lifted my face to the sun, my eyelids dropping to half-mast as I breathed the cool morning air.

I'd never really been much of a morning person, but I couldn't deny the beauty of a day in its infancy. The air was fresher, as though I could smell the dew on it, and the sun hadn't yet worked itself up to a full glower so the light was gentle, allowing the colours of the forest to seem more vivid. Everything was just softer.

I took a full breath and bit the inside of my cheek, wincing.

That was enough procrastinating. The longer I put this off, the more people there would be around to witness it.

I squared my shoulders, grimacing as I focused on my determination rather than the fear, and walked down the path further into the village.

The road was pale and dusty, a sharp contrast to the dark gravel I had last seen in the future, and the wooden huts were strangely topped with stones, perhaps to hold down the thatch in the event of a windy day or a hurricane. There was a slight twisting in my stomach at the alienness of it all but I ignored it, refusing to get bogged down in homesickness – it would do me no good here.

A few villagers were out, mulling around in their thigh-length kosode and busying themselves with chores for the day, but I could see no sign of Kaede. I wanted to pretend it was more likely that she was in the woods so I'd have an excuse to hide from all these people I didn't know, but I knew that as the village priestess and healer it was highly improbable. My best bet then was to confront one of the villagers and ask where she was.

I guess it was time to suck it up then. If they hadn't called a witch hunt for Kagome yet, I'd probably get out of this alive too.

Huffing a breath and trying to blank my mind to protect myself from my errant thoughts I walked up to a little girl who was carrying a bucket around the side of her hut, either to get water or get rid of waste. She didn't look older than maybe twelve, so she was one of the least threatening people I was likely to find this easily. It was another concession to my cowardice but at least I was trying.

Cutting off the majority of my higher thought so I couldn't overthink this anymore than I already had, I called to the girl, "Excuse me?"

She stopped and turned on her heel to look up at me, the bright smile that lit her face reminding me to plaster on an answering one so she wouldn't think I was rude or a creep, "Hello," her dark brown eyes darted down to my clothes then they were back to mine, "Are you a friend of Lady Kagome?"

Lady? Since when was Kagome titled?

"Ah…" I brought my hands around to lace the fingers together loosely in front of my skirt, one over the other, "Yes, I am. I was wondering if by any chance you'd seen Kaede today?"

Her brows pulled together and she looked off at nothing, "Lady Kaede?"

My cheeks heated and I gripped my laced fingers tighter, the palm of one hand pressed tight to the back of the other.

I couldn't believe I'd been leaving off the woman's title the entire time. She was probably cursing my name for my rudeness even now.

I tilted my head down ever so slightly, my smile straining into more of a rueful grimace.

Why was everyone suddenly titled? Next thing you know I'd have to start calling Sango, Miroku and Inuyasha 'Lady'.

Brightening, her gaze drew mine again, "Ah yes. I believe I may have seen her earlier talking to Mrs. Nakamura about her baby. It seems she has been suffering from a bit of upset stomach lately."

"Could you tell me where her house is?"

She pointed out towards the large quadrants of water at the southern edge of the small village, "Hers is the house on the right closest to the rice paddies."

I pushed another smile to my face for the young girl, "Thank you for your help."

Her answering one was all the more brilliant for the sincerity that mine lacked, "Certainly. It is an honour to assist a friend of Lady Kagome and Lady Kaede."

Uncertain how exactly to end the interaction, I bowed just a little, then turned on my heel as soon as was considered polite and fast walked toward the rice paddies before the wince soured my smile again.

Would I forever be punished with reminders of how I'd effectively snubbed Kaede- _Lady_ Kaede? Darn it all anyway.

As luck would have it, just as I was approaching the door and beginning to fret over how I would effectively invite myself into a stranger's home, the old priestess's hunched figure shuffled out the door.

She turned her head back to address the person in the hut, "Do not worry, the infant will recover. But remember to administer the tonic I gave ye each morn and night, and put gentle pressure on her stomach after she is fed."

I listened to the answering profusions of gratitude from the hut while I waited for her to turn around and see me, unable to make myself intrude on her conversation with the overwrought village woman about the colicky baby.

She lifted her arm for a small wave to the woman in the hut then she was turning, her uncovered eye surveying the village and her posture seeming to relax into the gentle breeze that blew from the mountains. As her gaze alighted on me her smile was gentle as it was immediate, which only made me that much more conscious of the tightness plaguing the muscles in my own face.

Her smile faded as she continued to look at me but her eyes softened. She lifted a beckoning arm to me, "Come child, take a walk with me."

I bobbed my head, unable it seemed to decide if I wanted to bow or nod at her, then I was scurrying after her out of the village.

~o0o~

There was a raised path skirted in grass that loosely bordered the forest. It was separated from the village by a small river which likely saved the people from flooding in the rainy season and in order to reach it, one had to cross a small bridge over the water. As if sensing not only that I needed distance from the villagers, but that proximity with the forest would help calm me, Kaede led me along this path.

We meandered and I watched the way the clear water shone in the soft sunlight while Kaede waited for me to muster the courage to speak my mind.

Finally tired of wasting both her and my time I looked over to her face, only a few inches below my own, "Ka- Lady Kaede."

I watched the crow's feet by her only uncovered eye deepen as she huffed a little laugh through her nose, "There is no need to stand on ceremony, I am happy for ye to refer to me by my given name. Now, tell this old woman what weighs on your soul so."

I looked down at my black shoes, now covered with a thin film of dust, my lips tightening, "Why do you think I'm here Kaede?"

She looked up at the sky and hummed at me, drawing my gaze at the sound, "Why? Why are any of us here child? These are not easy questions to answer, but we can rest assured that such things are not without purpose – very little is." She turned her grey head to look at me, her eyes kind, "However, if we wish to understand what our purpose is, we must examine the conditions under which we are put."

Her grey ponytail swished against the whiteness of her kosode which seemed even brighter in the direct sunlight as she looked ahead of us again, her hands clasped behind her back, "I was born the second daughter to a poor family. It was found at a young age that my sister possessed strong spiritual powers, so she studied under priestesses and despite our poverty, my sister became a paragon to our village. As the second daughter, the shadow of a prodigy, I took comfort in the carefree life relative obscurity afforded me. However, when my sister died, I realized that I would have to abandon that and step into the role she had vacated. To become what was needed."

She tilted her head to me again, "So what are your conditions child?"

My eyes darted to her, then moved to take refuge in the silent life of the forest, "Well, I'm an only child and I don't believe there's anything particularly special about my family line. My parents were always overprotective but I was able to go to public schools and decide for myself the sort of things I wanted to study and what I would want to be when I grew up. After high school I'd wanted to go to university then maybe medical school, but I wasn't altogether certain yet – I'd figured I had time to decide."

She hummed at me again, "When did ye meet Kagome?"

"In elementary school. She'd been in one of my classes and we've been friends ever since. It helped that we happened to go to the same middle and high schools."

"And how did ye come to the well? What did ye see or feel afterward?"

I told her the story, not omitting Kagome's mischievousness or the way I felt when I'd found my way into the well house. Normally after having repeated parts of it so many times I would have abbreviated it, but in this I stubbornly refused. I wanted to understand.

Kaede was quiet, lowering her eyes to the dusty ground as she processed all that I'd told her, then her chin tilted up to speak again, "Well, I think in order to pass through the well at all, ye would have to have some spiritual power of your own, or someone with immense spiritual power would have had to facilitate your journey here."

She stopped walking abruptly, turning to lead me to a tree a little ways away that overlooked both the river and the path. Settling down by the trunk she gestured for me to follow suit, her eyes serious, "I need to test how much spiritual power ye have so that I may have more information to work with."

I nodded my assent then she closed her eyes, seeming to pray. While she did so, I threaded my fingers through the grass, revelling in the warm little blades that curled up to tickle my skin. They seemed to dance around my fingers and against the skin of my bare legs, entreating me to touch them more and my lips relaxed into a smile. I found my left hand reaching toward the bark of the tree to pull it into the sweetness of the grass's game when suddenly weathered palms were covering my temples, gnarled fingers resting on top of the tangled hair I just remembered I'd forgotten to brush before I left the hut.

Kaede's eyes flashed open and her hands jerked back, as if burned. Then she was shaking.

My brow creased and I lifted one hand from the swaying grass to reach for her, "Kaede?"

"Wait," my hand hovered in the air between us, "give this old woman some time to acclimate, I must admit lass, ye have taken me quite by surprise."

The crease deepened to complement the light pursing in my lips and I lowered my hand to the grass again. The blades curled around my fingers encasing my digits in their warmth to entice me to stay longer this time, and my facial muscles again relaxed.

Kaede slowly steadied, then folded her wrinkled hands in her lap, "It seems that in a manner of speaking, I was correct."

I tilted my head to the side, brows again scrunched.

"Ye have come to this time under your own spiritual power."

My brows rose to my hairline and my back shot ramrod straight, "What?"

"Ye have the strongest spiritual power I have ever felt. If I were to compare it to anyone, I would say that your capacity likely most closely matches that of Midoriko."

My back muscles unclenched, "Who?"

"She was a priestess of old. The one who gave her life to create the Shikon jewel; the priestess with the strongest spiritual power ever known."

I didn't know whether to be shocked or elated, but frankly I was tired from all this strong emotion I'd been feeling lately.

I sighed.

How nice, I got to be the special snowflake of my very own story.

I ran my fingers over the top of the grass, absorbing their calming warmth as I pet the blades, "So what does this mean exactly?"

Kaede's lined brow ridge compressed, deepening and creating more lines around her eyes and forehead, "It means child, that though ye do not physically resemble her, you are likely Midoriko's reincarnation."

I bent my head, locks of my tangled, dark hair falling over my shoulder as I gently pressed the blades into the earth only for them to playfully spring back up into my palms, "If that's true, why am I here as opposed to in my own time? Why did I feel like I was being called here at the well?"

I heard her pause, "Perhaps because your purpose lies here."

Then a gnarled hand was touching the back of one of the hands absently playing with the grass and I started, "What is that ye are doing?"

I looked up from the grass into her inquiring eyes, "I'm not sure. The grass wants me to touch it, so I am."

Her brows rose, "The grass wants ye to?"

I hummed an assent, "That's what it feels like."

Her gaze intensified, "And is this similar to the encounter ye had with Goshinboku?"

I pursed my lips, "I suppose. The grass warms the same way, but it tickles me too."

Realizing the nonsense I was sprouting, dropping my head seemed appropriate to match the sardonic smile twisting my lips, "Of course this makes no more sense now than it did yesterday, but I honestly can't be bothered to freak out about it now. Maybe one day I'll get to it."

Kaede's chuckle pricked my ears and I glanced to see what had amused her, "Sweet child, there is no need to 'freak out' as ye say. This is likely an extension of Midoriko's power; I suspect it evolved some time before ye inherited it. For you, I believe it is natural."

I pulled one hand to rest in my lap and straightened, running the backs of my fingers over the blades of grass in concession for taking away one of their toys, "So you think this has to do with my purpose?"

"Indeed."

I lightly chewed on the inside corner of my bottom lip, absently running my hand over the dancing grass, then I released the tissue from the gentle prison of my teeth, "So I was brought five hundred years into the past because Midoriko's evolved power will be needed here? Alright, fine. But how? And when?"

The corners of Kaede's mouth lifted but it was countered by the almost rueful set of her brows, "I cannot say, lass. All will be revealed in time."

"That's fair I suppose, but how much time? I still have to go back to my parents and school, or at least I'd like to."

"I do not know; the time could come in a week, or a month, or years from now. Time will tell. Be not anxious Hisako, ye must remember that patience is equally as important as determination."

Determination?

Heat flooded my cheeks and my shoulders inched up reflexively. It was like this woman had a sixth sense.

"Kaede, I wanted to ask you something else."

Her only response was a smile.

Yup, she was psychic. Or maybe just an empath.

"If I'm going to be here, I want to be able to help. I don't want to inconvenience the group or endanger them because of my incompetence on a battlefield. Could you- " My vocal chords seized but with effort I urged them into malleability again, "Please, would you train me? Teach me how to use this spiritual power with a weapon so I can be useful?"

The smile stretched wider in her wizened face and she seemed to settle back into herself, "Ye had only to ask, child."


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: So not quite minutes after midnight this time either, but it's better.**

* * *

 **Chapter 6**

The dying embers of my flush created something of a halo of gentle heat around my face as I looked into Kaede's enigmatic expression.

This woman really was quite something else. I knew there was no reason for it, but something about her had me just on the edge of discomfiture. Was this the power she had as an experienced priestess, or was it just a particular wisdom one gained with advanced age? Either way, I couldn't fathom how Inuyasha could ever look at her and simply dismiss her as an "old bat".

Without me quite consenting to it, my left hand was snaking out again to lay a palm to the tree's bark, but I decided I'd let it slide because it made me feel a little better.

"Come now Hisako, there is no need for that."

I snapped to attention, looking first to her but finding nothing altered within the last five minutes, then around me. All appeared unchanged, except that the blades of grass had definitively cleaved to me, lying flat against the skin of my legs while the tree overhead seemed to have stooped closer to us.

Curiouser and curiouser.

"Be at ease, there is no need to call the greenery to your defence."

Was that what that was?

I promptly pulled my palm from the tree and soothed the blades of grass against my legs with my fingers in thanks for their offered comfort, "Sorry."

She huffed a laugh through her nose, "Come, we must direct this surplus of potential ye have before all the greenery becomes uprooted at the whim of your emotions."

I took my hand from the grass to curl it with the other in my lap, slouching to pull them a little further into me.

"The first thing I believe will be necessary to assist ye in becoming familiar with your spiritual power is mediation."

I heaved a sigh through my nose and grimaced, my lips twisting as they pressed together.

I hated meditation but I supposed there were worse things.

Her brown eye narrowed on me, "Now, ye must rest your hands on your knees, straighten your spine, close your eyes and focus on your breaths – they needs be slow and even, but not too deep or ye shall become dizzy. When ye have done that, empty your mind and feel for the light within."

I sighed again and complied as best I could. I absolutely had no idea what she meant by the "light within", but I would try all the same.

I tried to empty my mind, but several times it would settle on different images of tranquillity, like still water, the sky or an empty field, but none of those felt quite like what Kaede was asking me to do so I fought to keep them down. I threw as much concentration as I could into my breathing to distract from them, but that presented its own set of problems. I found myself getting dizzy, or my eyes would begin to hurt though I wasn't actually looking at anything, or I'd begin to doze, and several times I caught myself falling to the side, as though the entire exercise had skewed my centre of gravity.

I knew this was ridiculous, but how difficult this relatively simple task was seemed ridiculous to me. All the same, I kept trying.

I struggled to actively block out my hearing to make myself concentrate, but that only resulted in my ears ringing, so I decided that if I just sat long enough in the darkness of my mind, these things would come along on their own. So I did little more than sit under the tree, feeling the occasional cool breeze until they became warm. Until my bottom and legs got pins and needles then became numb to the grass as well as themselves. Until I forgot to hear the occasional birdsong in the nearby forest. Until I forgot to feel the now strong glower of the sun on my skin. Until I forgot to feel anything. Then I was just in the darkness. I couldn't tell if I sat or stood, or what time of day it was, but sometime after I forgot to notice any of these things I found the "light".

I didn't see it as I'd subconsciously expected to so much as feel it like something brushing up against an extra limb I'd been previously unaware of, except inside me. I flexed the limb experimentally and it moved fairly easily with my mental commands, brushing against the light which, against all laws of physics, felt tangible. I couldn't quite tell the volume of it in its entirety, but there seemed an abundance and it was rather pliable, so I pulled off a small piece, separating it from the almost depthless whole and pulled it up to me. I couldn't exactly tell where "up" was, but I instinctively felt where the more functional part of me was, and the closer I got to it, the warmer I seemed to get and the more the little marshmallow piece of light expanded and evaporated to blanket my consciousness. When I felt I could bring it no higher and I was suffused with heat, I opened my eyes.

Kaede's single eye was the widest I'd ever seen it and not a muscle in her twitched. I couldn't really say I blamed her when I realised that I was, quite literally, on fire.

I didn't even register when my heart began to race, only the unbearable pain in my chest that usually accompanied it when I was particularly piqued, and I idly wondered if I'd actually manage to frighten myself into a heart attack this time.

Too shocked to work up to an actual scream, air only seeped through my nose, my vocal chords strung tight. The flamingo pink flames shot higher with my agitation then suddenly I was surrounded by a fortress of greenery.

The grass had leapt from the ground, growing high and riotously around me. It rose some distance past my head in a tangle of long strands, the closest of which wrapped around me completely to almost imitate a second skin. I looked up only to see that the tree had suffered a similar fate; its lowest branches had grown down and long to create a curtain of wood and leaves blocking me off from everything else.

I would have jumped but for the grass skin and my knees which refused to work after sitting on them for so long. So instead the best I could manage was to fall over onto my side rather unceremoniously, more grass growing up to follow me and cushion my fall as the light of my flames winked out.

"Child, ye must relax! There is no danger."

I blinked through the dark curtain of tangled hair that had fallen into my face, my cheek flush with the ground through layers of mutant grass. I pressed the fingers of the hand not crushed under my body into the blades lain flat by my weight, trying to calm my heart.

I actively slowed my breathing and rubbed my cheek into the grass beneath me to comfort it. As I did I heard a gentle knock against the ground.

"Oy Kaede, what the hell happened? Where is the girl?"

I heard a sigh, then, "She is within the greenery, Inuyasha."

"Well don't just sit there you old bat, help me get her out!"

Another sigh, "All is well Inuyasha, it protects her."

A pause, "From what?"

"The young lass became startled as we meditated."

A light thud, "So how're we going to get her out then?"

The sigh came again, "The greenery will release her when she calms, Inuyasha."

I supposed this was my cue then.

My heart had quieted during the course of their conversation and now more conscious of what I looked like under all this plant life with my increased audience, I coaxed the grass back from my body, pushing down the skirt that had flipped up to my hip in the commotion and frantically ran my fingers through my hair to remove what knots I could.

When I deemed myself more or less presentable, I pet the grass that now danced around me again in thanks for its service, then stood to part the curtain of branches and leaves. Or rather, I attempted to stand, but my knees reminded me quite pointedly that if I didn't want arthritis early I'd need to be kinder to them and give more recovery time. So unable to hold my weight I flopped back onto my bottom.

"You alright in there?"

My cheeks burned at the rough depth of his voice and I gripped the hem of my skirt.

I'd almost forgotten they were still waiting for me.

"Ah, yeah. I'm fine, just give me a second."

I massaged the sides of my knee caps and tested the muscles around them. Seeming somewhat closer to functionality, I lifted my legs out one at a time, bending them back and forth to gently reintroduce the idea of movement to them.

Bent over my legs, I blew the shorter locks of hair out of my eyes.

That was the last time I'd sit on my calves for hours. Idiocy.

"You need help getting out?"

I started, my back straightening to attention, "Ah- no. No I'm fine thank you, I'm coming."

Scrambling to my hands and knees I thought perhaps I'd better just crawl out of this mess rather than waste time babying my joints. I reached out a hand to move the hanging branches aside but suddenly light was piercing my little alcove, Inuyasha's bright amber eyes almost glowing in the manufactured darkness I'd unconsciously become accustomed to. The deep pink of his lips were a dark anointment to the shadowed alabaster of his face, similar to the black slashes of his brows that broke the smooth continuity of his skin. The front of him was cast in faint shadow, but the sun at his back lit the outer edges of his pale hair such that it seemed to merge with the light. He could have been an angel.

The irony of this did not escape me.

I pulled my hand back so as not to seem like I was necessarily reaching for him, but before it could get very far, his dark brows were lowering over his bright eyes and distracted by the contrast I almost didn't notice the lightly calloused skin of his clawed hand as it clamped down on my wrist.

My eyebrows shot up but before I could emote more than that he was hauling me out of the little jungle I'd made.

I stumbled on my knees at the unexpected force behind his grip and fell between his legs into his chest where he was crouched before me, the firm muscles of his inner thighs brushing my hips. My free hand came out to press against his sternum to discourage more of the damning momentum that would have landed me flush against him. Now safely halted an inch or two from his body I looked up into his face.

He released my wrist to lightly but firmly grip my shoulders. His head pulled back just a little to get a better vantage point of my body and his lowered brows remained glued to his dark eyelashes as he looked me over. Apparently finding nothing amiss, he grunted his approval and dropped his hands from my shoulders, relaxing his neck.

I tilted my head to the side and felt the echoes of his steady heartbeat where my hand was still pressed to him. I looked up at his now smoothed brows, the raspberry pink of his mouth so like a piece of ripe fruit nestled under the slim line of his nose, and into the eyes that always seemed lit from within as they held my gaze.

That was nice of him. Abrupt certainly, but nice of him.

A throat clearing disrupted my thoughts and I turned to look at Kaede, my cheeks burning as I realized I'd been caught staring into Inuyasha's eyes like a simpering fool.

"That was most impressive, child," there was the barest hint of a laugh in her tone, "but perhaps we should now help ye to control it?" She lifted a brow as her eye shifted to Inuyasha, "I am certain Inuyasha would be happy to sit with us as ye learn."

He huffed a breath through his nose, but when he stood to walk away, the fabric of his hakama brushing my skirt up a little as he rose, he stopped to settle closer to the water. His back was to the village so that he could see both us and the forest beyond as he crossed his legs and rested his hands together in the sleeves of his haori. His posture was relaxed but his eyes were vigilant, little white ears twitching at the slightest sound.

This was the first time I'd seen him since our strange interlude at the hot spring the day before, but nothing in his behaviour hinted that anything had ever happened. Granted it hadn't been the grandest gesture he could have done, but even I found it a little hard to act normally around him today.

"Come child, we had best begin. The sun has risen high in the sky; the day is already half gone."

My face afire for getting caught again in the act I shuffled to Kaede, sitting with my legs crossed this time; I'd learned my lesson.

She reached her tanned, wizened hands to pull mine from where they were half clenched in my lap and brought both to hover between us, "Begin meditation once more, however this time when ye bring the light within, you must focus it toward your palms."

My spine slumped a little at the prospect of more meditation, but I sighed and again began the process of shutting down my bodily functions. It was perhaps a hint easier this time but I assumed I was doing it correctly because I barely noticed. In the darkness I plucked off another little marshmallow and brought it up. As it began to evaporate like before, I scrambled to compress it with my consciousness so that it would retain its shape. When I could bring it no higher, I mentally felt for the position of my hands, and like a directive, the light shot off in that direction. Feeling my appendages become blanketed in heat, I opened my eyes.

Kaede's gaze was trained on the pink flames encasing my hands, hers hovering just below mine to avoid touching them, "Very good. Now propel it up from your palms and attempt to form it into a ball."

Still kind of out of it, I felt the heat in my hands and poked at it with my consciousness, willing it up and away from my skin. Feeling it start to evaporate, my consciousness rushed to contain it, compressing it until I felt certain it wouldn't try anything funny.

"Yes lass, like that. I did not think to carry any weapons we might use for this, so for now perhaps ye could try throwing it."

I considered whether it would be easier to chuck the moderately sized ball of pale pink light in my hands, or to split it into two and chuck them one at a time. I dropped my eyes to stare into the ball I wasn't quite holding.

I supposed I would just try to split it and if I couldn't then it would be moot anyway.

My lids slid shut as I reached to feel the compressed ball above my hands. Probing it with the strange extra limb, I found that though it was separated from the whole I could still pluck off another piece from it. But as soon as I did I began to feel both pieces evaporate. Worried about letting the light run loose when Kaede was this close to me, I threw my consciousness around them both and pressed them into themselves as though I were gripping them in my hands. Feeling that they'd maintain shape, I cracked an eye open and saw that my fingers were half curled around two smaller balls of light much like the original. Content that I'd succeeded in not setting Kaede on fire I raised my eyes to the forest and threw the ball in my right hand, gasping as I felt the bones in my elbow scrape together.

I'd never been the worst performing student in P.E., but never let it be said that I had the best throwing arm.

I just hoped I hadn't hurt my elbow too badly. I'm sure Kaede would think it very funny: Grandma Hisako's thrown out her elbow again.

Goodness.

The ball's trajectory had only the barest hint of an arch, but it still fell short of the forest's first line of trees, coming to rest some seven or eight meters away. It shouldn't have surprised me considering what had just happened, but the resulting foliage that burst up from the ground on the ball's impact jolted me out of the prickling embarrassment of people witnessing my mediocre athleticism.

Scrambling to my feet, elbow forgotten, I hurried over to the conspicuous growth to look at it. It appeared like the grass I'd mutated before, inherently unchanged save for its startling length which ended somewhere around my waist.

The over-long blades swayed toward me, entreating me to touch them and I gave them my right hand to delight in as I considered where to throw the next ball. My eyes came to rest on the river we had walked past earlier.

Why not?

I retrieved my hand from the blades that clung to my elbow and jogged over to the path we'd walked, tossing the pale pink ball into the river.

I'm not certain what I'd expected but it certainly wasn't this. It sometimes behaved like flames so I'd been curious to see if it might fizzle out or something similar. On the contrary, it lit a decent length of the river, startling the few watching villagers gathered on the other side of the bank I'd failed to notice until just now.

I winced.

As the light died down, I noticed some things a few shades darker than the water floating to the surface to be carried slowly downstream by the current. I picked my way down the sloping bank, trying not to trip over my own feet as I came to a stop at the edge of the water.

I recognized the round, glassy eyes, the scalloped hide and the streamlined shape, but that was where the similarities ended. These strange creatures had designs of deeper blue etched into their scales that I was hard-pressed to believe occurred in ordinary nature, and they had something akin to a snout with serrated edged knives for teeth. They were like dead, mutated piranha floating gaily along the river current in the sunshine. The most likely conclusion seemed to me that they were demons.

My cheeks tingled numbly for a sudden lack of oxygenated blood.

Please don't tell me I just killed all these people's fish.

My brows furrowed but my eyes were wide.

Could people even eat demons? I felt like that would poison them or something, but really what did I know?

I clenched my fingers in the hem of my pale grey skirt.

Dear God please tell me I didn't just eradicate these poor people's safest source of meat.

I leaned over the water, straining my eyes to quickly scan the clear liquid for anything moving, and there it was. And again, and again.

I released the breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding and relaxed my fingers from my hopelessly creased skirt.

Seems the normal fish were fine; I'd only killed the demon fish. Perhaps today wouldn't be the day for a witch hunt.

I raised my eyes from the water to see that the commotion had gathered a small crowd, some of whom were transfixed by the mutant piranha on the water while the others looked on at me.

Blood flooded my cheeks and my lips pressed involuntarily into a tight smile. Utterly at a loss as to what to do in the face of all this attention, I bobbed a half-bow then turned on my heel and fair ran away back to where Kaede had turned to watch the spectacle.

Heart pounding, I flopped down on my knees by her with my back to the villagers, forgetting the earlier protesting in my joints in my haste.

Kaede's hands rested in the lap of her red nagabakama and her uncovered eye was kind as she lightly chuckled at me, "I think that perhaps we will give your spiritual prowess a rest for today."

I hummed at her and slid my bottom off of my calves to rest on the grass instead, finally remembering that I didn't actually _want_ to hurt my knees. My vision slid over the ground in an arc from the forest to the tree, and I felt a small frown pulling at my mouth, "Whe-"

I'd just looked up from my first impromptu jungle to find a streak of red in the upper branches of the tree. Following it, I found the pale hair darkened ever so slightly by the shade of the leaves and the glowing amber eyes trained on me.

I breathed, "Oh."

"Inuyasha became a little concerned when ye ran to the river, and relocated to the tree to better see."

"I ain't worried about anything you old bat!" There was a thump as he landed in a crouch below the tree, his ears twitching with his agitation.

Under the weight of my stare the mad twitching calmed and his ears laid flat to his skull, his eyes dropped to the arms he was already folding back into the baggy sleeves of his haori as he again crossed his legs.

Kaede huffed a little laugh through her nose, "Indeed? Well come Hisako, we must procure ye a bow so that ye may have something into which to focus your spiritual power."

I winced as I stood with her, absently noticing that Inuyasha rose as well. Seems she really wasn't impressed by my throwing arm, not that I'd really expected her to be, but the truth was no less uncomfortable for it.

Blood branded my cheeks from just below the skin but I sighed, shuffling after her back into the village of shell-shocked people.

I supposed it was what it was.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Another early(-ish) release. Yay! As per usual, please forgive me if I've missed any mistakes; I'll likely die of embarrassment as it is if I find any later...**

* * *

 **Chapter 7**

We must have looked quite the sight as we walked one behind the other in a relatively straight line: the shuffling, one-eyed woman hunched by age, the girl just a few inches taller, hunched by embarrassment shuffling after her, then the towering straight backed, white haired predator bringing up the rear who seemed to be trying for all the world to look like he wasn't as coiled to spring as he was.

I would have wanted to at least give the impression that I was the composed, normal one of the group, but between all the attention we were getting after my little spectacles and the near constant prickle at the back of my neck, I couldn't bring myself to do more than effectively hide in Kaede's wide, curved back. My facial muscles strained; frozen into an uncomfortable smile as I stared down my dusty school shoes, unseeing. It didn't help that every time I mustered a bit of courage to look up at least to see where we were going, my eyes met upwards of four or five pairs of staring dinner plates regardless of the direction I looked. I was just grateful I didn't have laces to trip over, because I probably would have. I hardly dared breathe strongly enough for a proper sigh, both because I felt compelled to make myself as unobtrusive as humanly possible, and because my shambling was kicking up so much pale dust that it was entirely possible I'd choke half to death.

I idly considered asking Inuyasha to take me away so I could hide, but I had yet to actually ask him for anything and I was disinclined as well as unsure of exactly how to set the precedent. He'd probably just look at me like I was crazy, and I really didn't need more staring.

God, why couldn't the feudal era have online delivery?

I tutted to myself.

Don't be silly, they could barely manage to maintain a stable shogunate in this era, much less the black hole of chaos that was the internet.

I clenched my teeth and dared another glance up, meeting the eyes of some three women, two children and several men I couldn't be bothered to actually count.

I bit the inside of my bottom lip and dropped my eyes again.

So while it obviously didn't make sense to let myself give in to every compulsion to hide from these people if I wanted to integrate, at least to some extent, they clearly weren't going to make it easy for me.

I lifted my chin up to look at the strong March sun, felt the brisk but gentle breeze brought down from the mountains, and finally allowed myself a sigh, hacking a little though I'd turned my head up to get away from the cloud of dust I'd almost single-handedly churned up.

But I had to say, perhaps though I'd accidentally marked myself a strange outsider, these people weren't quite so quick to begin ostracizing me as I might have thought; for all the avid staring, I'd yet to hear one whisper, malicious or otherwise. There was no sound but the wind, some distant birds chirping away, and busy feet disturbing the gravel. I was quite surprised, considering how easily I knew modern society could resort to cruelty given a bit of incentive.

I dropped my chin to peek at the crowd around us through my lashes and saw the beginnings of pleasant smiles on some of the faces.

Perhaps if they continued accepting my modern idiosyncrasies and thinking I wasn't worth lynching, I could really get to like these people.

That said, for all the pleasantness I was seeing around me, the prickle at the back of my neck didn't let up.

Creasing my brow just a little, I turned my head back as subtly as I could manage and peeked out of the corner of my eye.

My wandering gaze touched on more almost smiling faces, some men walking toward the river with empty nets, some walking away with nets full of the demon fish, then directly behind me, the burning topaz of Inuyasha's eyes.

Smouldering heat consumed my face and I whipped my head back around to stare hard into the back of Kaede's head as though there were never anything I could ever want more in life than to gaze upon the restrained grey strands.

Why was he looking at me like that?

Was he angry?

Should I apologize for attracting the crowd? Or for making him come along on our errand?

I turned my head back as I had before and whispered as I looked into the full intensity of his eyes, "Sorry."

His brows came together and he brought his hands to join in the sleeves of his haori again, "For what?"

My cheeks burned a little hotter and I pressed my lips together, "Never mind," then turned my head around again to stare at my feet.

So he wasn't angry then. But why was he staring at me like that? So intensely? Maybe he was trying to figure me out because he didn't think I looked to type to spontaneously grow a nature preserve.

It was fair; couldn't say I blamed him – I didn't think I looked the type either.

A knock, then, "Mr. Takeuchi, are ye within?"

Some rustling, then, "Lady Kaede? Oh yes, please, do come in."

We'd barely paused in our walk, so the abrupt shade I found myself in came as a shock to me, and my head shot up to assess my change in environment.

Similar to Kaede's hut, it was small, with a brief rectangle of gravel leading up to a raise in elevation of worn wood. The ceiling was fairly low and like all the other buildings in this village, made of wood and thatch, and had I been paying attention outside – likely weighed down by stones. However, unlike Kaede's hut, the walls were more rounded and had built in shelves and hooks in different areas. Naturally, given why we'd come, weapons covered these shelves and hooks and all other available wall space, as well as his little work station toward the back of the hut.

Kaede shaffled up to the man, smiling her wizened smile, "How do ye fare Mr. Takeuchi?"

It was clear in every line of this man's body that it wasn't often the village priestess graced him with a visit, and now that she had he wasn't quite sure what to do with himself. The lips in his smooth, pale face split wide enough to pull a muscle, his deep drown eyes sparkled, and he bowed just a little too low, "Oh I am quite well Lady Kaede. Thank you for always taking such care with our humble village, and thank you so much for paying me a visit. I am more honoured than I could ever possibly articulate."

Kaede chuckled her husky chuckle at his effusiveness and I tuned out their pleasantries, continuing to look around.

Bamboo shades covered his chest high windows as though the details of his little armoury were a secret, and on the shelf beneath them were swords of different lengths. I walked over to them to properly inspect, and while most of them were sleek katana with a few daggers and the occasional short sword, there was nothing that quite seemed like Inuyasha's blade. Straightening, I turned to ask him about it but he wasn't there.

My eyes scanned the hut again, wondering if I'd somehow passed over him, or if he'd decided to do a Spiderman impression and take a break on the ceiling, but his distinctive red and silvery white graced no part of the hut.

It seemed wrong that he wasn't here to add colour to the otherwise dull place. The greys and dingy browns of the metal and wood felt almost claustrophobic without his bright contrast.

So subconsciously rejecting the incompleteness the hut represented, I found myself stepping down onto the gravel to the shades that covered the entrance.

"Child? What is wrong?"

I started and turned around to look at the confusion deeply creasing her weathered face, "Huh?"

She tilted her head and took a hobbling step toward me, "Wherever are ye going, is something the matter?"

I sucked in a breath, my cheeks warming as I realized I had no good answer to give her, "I didn't see…Inuyasha isn't here, and I- I just wondered where he went."

Her eyes softened and her mouth relaxed into a smile, "Inuyasha is perfectly fine child, ye needn't fret. He often feels more comfortable guarding us from outside when we visit the villagers."

I breathed, "Oh," and deflated, "Sorry."

Her smile widened and she said with a hint of a laugh on her breath, "T'is quite alright." She waved me over to her, "Now come, we must see about acquiring ye a bow."

I bit my bottom lip and ducked my head, scurrying back up onto the wood.

She held a hand out to me and as I came to her side, she directed it around me to press her palm lightly to my back, presenting me, "This is Hisako, a friend of Kagome."

I bobbed a little bow to him and held his eyes where they were a few inches above me as I mumbled, "Nice to meet you."

She tipped her head up to smile at me briefly, then she turned back to the man, "I wondered if perhaps ye didn't have a bow that might fit her?"

The man was bursting into motion again, "Oh certainly! Please, let me…"

Then his dark brown topknot was bobbing as he hurried over to a wall to our right covered in hooks for bows of various sizes. As he looked them over he called back to us, "Has the lady made use of a bow previously?"

"Nay, she is a novice."

He breathed an affirmation, the lean muscles of his thighs shifting under his short, navy kosode as he hurried over to his little work table in the back and picked up what looked to be a small piece of charcoal then hurried back to us. He tipped his head down just a bit as he looked at me, "If you are amenable lady, would you please lie upon the floor with your arms outstretched?"

My mouth dropped open and I sputtered, "A-Ah, wh- ah, yeah sure."

I shouldn't have been surprised, considering the tape measure wouldn't be invented in America for another three hundred and fifty years or so, and standardized measurement wouldn't be adopted here for nearly another twenty years after that. So I bobbed a nod and absently used a hand to smooth my skirt to my bottom as I stooped to my knees, trying to get supine in as ladylike a way as possible in a pleated miniskirt in a society almost as conservative as the modern Middle East.

I lay as requested, and tried not to accidentally look up the poor man's clothes as he stepped over and around me to make marks on the ground at the fingertips of each hand.

When he finished he stepped back and tucked his head briefly, smiling at me, "Thank you, you are free to stand again now if you wish."

I mumbled, "Thank you," trying to ignore the tingling in my cheeks as I smoothed the mess I was convinced had become of my hair in the last five minutes and huddled to stand beside Kaede as before.

The man walked back to his desk, finally easing into the rhythm of his work and collected what could only have been a handful of barley grains.

Barley? Was he hungry? Could one even eat barley raw?

He walked back to the first charcoal mark, and from there began to slowly walk in a line to the next mark, beginning each step immediately at the toe of the previous foot, until he'd taken five steps. I wondered what he would do about the bit of extra space left over, but then he put down eighteen barley seeds, all in a line up to the second charcoal mark.

I cocked an eyebrow, "Hm."

Provided I could ever get home and have the audacity to come back here, maybe I'd bring this man a tape measure…then again, I didn't want to frighten the townspeople into rethinking the whole lynching thing.

The man looked thoughtfully at the barley seeds, then carefully stepped away from them and back to the wall, occasionally looking over his shoulder back at the barley as he stooped down to the larger bows he kept on the lower hooks. His hand hovered between two recursive bows, then deciding on the slightly shorter one, he lifted it from the hook and walked back over to hand it to me.

My fingers touched the smooth dark wood as the man, having dismissed me to move on to his next task, walked away. I knew I'd never handled a bow before, nor had I had any real ambitions to before this, but now that I held the 66" recursive bow in my hand, so much lighter than it seemed it should have been considering it was a few inches taller than me, something swelled in my chest and I wasn't certain if I wanted to take a large breath and risk getting dizzy, jump, or spontaneously combust…though I wasn't quite certain how I'd manage that one. The first felt wrong and the other two too overt, so I settled with biting back a smile and locking my knees as I gripped the wood that was just heavy enough to be a comforting weight as it warmed in my hands.

The man came back to us, having picked up a quiver full of arrows and handed them to me as well. As I slipped it on almost shaking now, Kaede smiled at him, "I am grateful for your assistance Mr. Takeuchi. I will make certain to pay ye handsomely by the end of the day."

The man took a small, humbled step backward and ducked his head, "Oh no Lady Kaede, I could accept no such thing from you. You visiting my humble shop is payment enough; your patronage alone will assure me more customers in the future. Thank you for thinking to come to me."

Kaede chuckled, "Alright Mr. Takeuchi, if that is what you wish."

He bowed a little too low again, and just after I managed to tear my sweating palms from the warm wood of my new bow to sling it across my torso, Kaede was pressing a palm to my back to usher me out, "Come child, now ye must learn to use it."

I hummed an affirmative, and turned to look over my shoulder at the man just before we left his hut, "Thank you."

He rose a little from his bow and smiled in response as we passed through the doorway and he went out of sight.

~o0o~

Despite how taken I was with my new equipment, I tried to be more of an adult about the whole thing rather than scream like a little girl on the inside over it by putting it out of my mind. So of course what I immediately replaced it with as soon as we stepped out of the hut was Inuyasha.

The second my eyes adjusted to the increased light, they were scanning for crimson.

The good news was that I didn't have to look long at all; he had apparently chosen to lean against the wall of the hut just beside the door as we did business inside. The bad news was that in my haste to find him, it was glaringly obvious my intent as well as my eagerness, when I visibly relaxed at seeing the familiar strands of his pale silver head. So this in conjunction with when he'd undoubtedly heard me ask for him inside the hut, were likely what had now pinned his brilliant eyes to me. Not having noticed that anything was amiss, Kaede continued to shuffle along, but neither Inuyasha nor I moved a muscle.

I stiffened and my eyes widened, my cheeks beginning to tingle and his eyes narrowed incrementally, his pupils seeming to contract to pinpricks.

Without ever quite meaning to, my lungs stalled, and as my heart began to throb in my chest he took a step toward me.

I gasped and took a step back, turning my face away as my cheeks burned to look at the small crowd who seemed to have decided to stay back and wait for us.

Dedicated bunch.

Turning on my heel, I fast walked to catch up to Kaede, making certain not to make eye contact with anyone.

Why was I acting like this – had my head stepped out for happy hour? I hardly knew this boy; I couldn't be behaving this way about him. Giving him ideas.

If I was lonely then fine, I'd see if I couldn't find someone here to occupy my time and distract me from Inuyasha. I had more self-respect than this; this simpering nonsense could not continue.

It was time to start looking for that farmer.

I matched Kaede's sedate pace and looked about at the village people once more. A decent number had gone back to work, and of those a goodly portion had set about carting what was left of the demon fish off into the forest – I assume to keep hungry larger demons away from the village. Dismissing the busy ones, I scanned the crowd for boys my age and men who seemed content to just spend today staring.

I considered which I should focus on more, and while boys my age were more appealing, it was unlikely that they'd already have their own farms, or be ready for marriage, so they were unlikely to take me too seriously. So although it turned my stomach a little to do so, I exclusively looked at the men. I found a fair few who seemed under the age of thirty and decided to try my luck with them because I dared not go any older. With any luck, I'd find a young one.

I purposely made eye contact with them, and when some dropped my gaze I assumed it meant they either didn't want me, were easily frightened, or were already married. This left me with about three men, but one of them was really just entirely too unfortunate looking, so I narrowed it down to two. They seemed young enough; around their mid-twenties. The younger one had a few inches on the elder, he lacked the softness the other was beginning to accumulate around his middle, and he had a boyish prettiness to him. The mahogany hair restrained in his standard topknot looked fine and clean where the elder man's hair was black and a little coarser. The younger's skin was smooth and lightly tanned where the elder man was almost pale enough for me to believe he lived with nobility, and the younger man had a fine-boned face where the elder was stockier and rugged.

Deciding that perhaps the elder intimidated me too much, I turned my full attention to the younger one.

His eyes widened a little as he noticed I'd focused on him, and not knowing what else to do to attract him to me, I smiled as gently and prettily as I could.

I may utterly lack artifice, but I was more or less aware of the beauty standards of the time. And while I wasn't in any way the most beautiful woman, I had the submissiveness they liked down pat.

His eyes widened a little more at my openness, then accepting it as what he assumed was just my personality, his eyelids relaxed and he smiled back at me.

My cheeks warmed at my success and I widened my smile a little, dropping my eyes for a second to complement my blush then looking back up at him through my lashes, hoping it was flirtatious enough to invite him to talk to me later.

His smile widened in response, but as soon as he took a step toward me I heard a growl rip from just behind.

I gasped and whipped my head back, my dark, lightly tangled hair brushing my cheek as I turned to see Inuyasha, barely a foot behind me, snarling at the nice farmer boy I'd just tried to attract.

"Inu- Inuyasha?"

His golden, glaring eyes slid to me and I stopped walking again.

Matching me, he stopped barely a foot from me and looked down into my eyes.

I didn't dare ask if he was ok because I had a feeling he would scoff and pretend it was nothing, so I stilled, my heart calming as the heat left my cheeks and I stared openly up into his eyes.

His glare relaxed a little and he took a half step closer to me, my fingers coming out to rest lightly on the hard stomach I felt beneath the layers of his kosode and haori.

I'm not certain how long we stood there just looking at each other amongst the villagers who ultimately all went to go about their lives as we'd ceased being interesting, but after a while his breathing calmed and in its wake my fingers crept up to his chest to feel his now steady heartbeat. His eyes softened. The tension bled out of the dark pink of his lips and they relaxed into their usual pillowy softness.

I took a tiny step closer, tilting up my chin to him as I did, "Ok now?"

He dropped his warm eyes from mine to look at his nose and grunted.

I rubbed my thumb lightly into his breastbone and hummed back at him, then turned on my heel to see how far Kaede had gotten. But she was standing on the other side of the side of bridge just watching us with soft eyes and a half smile.

Oh God!

Heat burned in my cheeks and even as my skin erupted in furious prickles, I grabbed Inuyasha's hand and pulled him with me, dropping my eyes and fast walking to the bridge.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Hello all. I'm sorry this is so late - I've temporarily changed countries and what with bad weather, cancelled flights and general exhaustion things have been a little behind schedule. But here the chapter is. In editing, the page number has exceeded the maximum I'd defined before, so for your troubles you get 6 extra pages of content. Yay!**

 **However, this is also the last chapter I have finished writing, so while I've already begun chapter 9, as I'd said, I make no promises from this point on for anything to be on time. Especially considering that when I sit down to write, I instead spend 9 hours doing research for the chapter and the ones to follow. That said, whenever I do update, it will be on the aforementioned days (Fridays or Saturdays). I hope this is not too much of an inconvenience to any of the few people I have following this story.**

 **I have edited this chapter a good few times, but of course that doesn't mean that there won't still be mistakes, so please forgive me if there are and I hope you enjoy it.**

* * *

 **Chapter 8**

Though I did my level best to look everywhere but directly at Kaede's face, my eyes still caught her quiet knowing look and I tried to ignore my cheek cells denaturing as I pointedly kept my mind blank so that I wouldn't have to speculate about exactly what that look meant.

When I came up to her side, I dropped Inuyasha's hand behind my back as smoothly as I could and tried to pass it off as though I hadn't really been holding it the entire time.

But efforts or no, Kaede's eye twinkled as she tipped her head up to me, "Are ye ready now?"

By this point my chin was almost touching the top of my chest and I mumbled, "Yeah, m'sorry."

The snort behind me ever so slightly ruffled my hair and I startled to realise that Inuyasha was still so close to me, "Let's go old hag, we're burnin' daylight."

Kaede dropped her head and closed her eye, nodding, then popped open the eye halfway to look at him, "Yes of course Inuyasha, far be it from this old woman to keep ye waiting."

He snorted again, then we were ambling across the bridge behind Kaede.

The weights of my bow and quiver bumped regularly against my back and bottom as we walked along the path to the little tree. My eyes stayed trained on it, remembering how I'd spontaneously mutated it as we passed and walked up the grassy incline into the line of trees. Like before, the light abruptly cut off and I was cast in chilled, dappled shade.

Surrounded by so much foliage, it was almost a physical ache not to touch it, but depriving myself the privilege for the sake of progress, my attention hyper focused on a small, dark brown sable darting behind a tree trunk to scale its length, the leaves rustling in the crisp, gentle breeze, and how the blades of grass nearest my feet seemed to lean into me just so though I never actually touched them.

Distracted by the life that surrounded me, and considering the way my last misadventure in the forest had gone, one would think that I'd be at least a little uneasy, but with Inuyasha seeming to refuse to fall back more than two feet from me as he brought up the rear, I couldn't muster the fear. He had kept me alive last time and apparently I trusted him to do it again.

Maybe fifteen minutes into the forest, Kaede slowed as we came just beyond the outlying trees of a small clearing. She stopped and slowly turned, shadows dancing across the white fabric of her kosode as she faced a tree.

"I think here shall make for an adequate training ground."

I cocked an eyebrow and waited.

Her dark eyes turned to me and she gestured to the trunk of the tree, "Here child; ye will shoot and aim for a place on one of these trees."

My eyebrow dropped and I nodded my understanding.

As she turned from me, I heard the muffled padding of feet on the grass, then a muted sort of thump. I turned my head to follow the sound but there was nothing behind me save spots of shaded grass where the angle of the sun had elongated the shadows.

"Do ye see-"

Leaves rustled in the tree Kaede stood by at the same time that a persistent knocking began, and I turned back to her to see that she'd picked up a rock and was striking the bark with it.

Though the sound of the knocking fair reverberated about our small clearing, I found I couldn't much concentrate on it. My eyes kept unfocusing as I stared at the little patch of sandy brown that grew under the insistence of her rock, until they left the scene altogether to raise up into the boughs of the tree.

I saw deep green leaves and branches interwoven, and they would have formed an impressively camouflaged fortress for anyone. Except Inuyasha. Because though he'd retreated into the greenery to put his back to the trunk, my eyes still caught the vibrant scarlet of his clothes. And it seemed whether we were in the dark or the light, I could never not see the piercing gold of his eyes as he looked down at me.

I suppose he planned to watch me practice to make sure I didn't accidentally kill myself…or lose a limb.

I wrinkled my nose.

That was probably fair.

"There, I believe that should suffice."

I dropped my eyes back to Kaede's relaxed features and the little beads of sweat that now shone on her brow.

"Ye shall aim for this mark," her tanned, gnarled finger pointed crookedly at the tan spot, "but before ye attempt it, allow me to demonstrate."

She ambled to me, her bamboo slippers whispering over the grass, and held out a hand, "If ye would not mind?"

"Oh! Right," I hunched, hurrying to pull the string of my new bow and the quiver over my head to give to her, "yeah, sorry."

She smiled and patted my upper arm as she took them, "Do not fret, child."

The muscles of my cheeks compulsively pulled my lips up into a tight smile, and unconsciously my shoulders followed the elevation, as though they were connected to my mouth by some invisible string. But though my body manifested my discomfort, my gaze stayed pinned to her as she turned her back to me to face the tree, adjusted the quiver over her shoulders and removed an arrow to nock it against the string of the bow.

Looking hard at the headless arrow in her hand, an eyebrow dropped low over my eyes and my mouth relaxed.

"T'is because ye are still training," I raised my eyes from the arrow to see Kaede looking at me, apparently having caught my expression, "when ye are more comfortable, we will return to Mr. Takeuchi and get arrow heads for when ye travel."

I nodded, "Oh, ok."

She turned back to face the tree.

"Now, grasp the bow with the hand ye do not usually prefer to use, and let the shaft of the arrow rest against the bones of the index finger of that hand. Fix the notch in the end of the arrow to the bowstring and clasp it between both index and middle fingers, with the ring finger below to stabilize them," she demonstrated as she spoke, "then pull back as far as ye are comfortable, being careful not to overextend." She raised the bow and arrow a little, then lowered them as she pulled back the arrow to let the fingers restraining it come to rest abreast with her mouth.

"Use the fore-hand to help ye aim. Then once ye are confident of your target take a breath, and upon the exhale," she loosed the arrow and it shot from her fingers to land with a thwack in the centre of the tan spot, "release."

I straightened my spine and rocked back on my heels as my eyes widened, and seeing my expression on turning to face me, she smiled, "T'is nothing child. With a bit of practice, ye will be capable of far greater feats."

Then she was shambling to me again and handing back the equipment, "Now try to recreate what I have done."

I stared dumbly at the bow and quiver hanging from my fingers for a second, then I was mindlessly slinging the quiver over my back, my right hand nocking an arrow to pull it back as I'd seen her do. Only the smooth movement I'd intended stuttered as I encountered the excessive tension in the string.

My eyes widened, then narrowed and I huffed a burst of air through my nostrils as I forced the string back as far as I could get it. I took another breath in preparation, but I suddenly felt a touch on both my shoulder and the hand gripping the bow, and the air paused on its way back out, "Ye are too tense child; ye must relax." Her fingers applied gentle pressure to the swell of my right shoulder and coaxed it back from the height I hadn't realized it'd climbed to, "Else the arrow will go awry."

I hummed my understanding, then absently focusing on keeping my muscles as relaxed as they could be given my activity, I trained my eyes on the tan mark and relaxed my death grip on the arrow. The nails of the index, middle and ring fingers of my right hand pressed lightly into my cheek and the corner of my mouth as I angled the tip of the arrow to end at the centre of the bit of bare tree trunk. I took a breath, then before I could think myself into submission, I let the arrow go.

It shot from me almost faster than I could see, the spine and feathers brushing my skin as the arrow left the enclosure of dark wood and string. But even then, I had the inexplicable urge to pull it back to me; wanting to try again before I'd even seen the results of my attempt. However, callous to my fretting, the arrow ignored the hand I caught already halfway to reaching out for it and smacked soundly into the trunk of the tree.

"That was a good attempt lass, ye'll not need too much more practice before ye are quite accomplished."

My eyes focused to see that my arrow had landed a centimetre or two below the bottom of the sandy brown patch Kaede had made in the tree.

My eyebrows furrowed and I was reaching for another arrow, "Hmm."

The next arrow I aimed an inch or two above the first, hoping this time to actually get it within the three-inch approximation of a tan circle. I stared down the spot, then on an exhale released the arrow.

This one thwacked home just above the bottom edge of the circle.

I tutted, then was reaching for another arrow.

"Child, I regret that I must leave ye," I dropped my hand and turned my head around to the left where she'd come to stand a few feet behind me, "if I but had more time I would stay to watch ye practice, alas I must return to my duties."

I turned around to face her properly and held her eyes even as I pointedly ignored the juvenile warmth coming to life in my cheeks, "Thank you, for all of this."

The lines in her cheeks and beside her eyes deepened and joined as her lips stretched wide, "T'was nothing at all, but ye are quite welcome, Hisako."

She turned to walk back the way we'd come then paused, looking back at me, "Perhaps in a few days when ye are more comfortable wielding the bow, we may try to help ye combine it with your spiritual power."

My lips made their own miniature impression of her smile and I ducked my head, "Yes, thank you Kaede."

She tipped her head a little to the side as her smile widened, "Ye are very welcome," her head straightened, "but remember not to wander unaccompanied. Though ye may be in the Forest of Inuyasha, ye are not necessarily safe unless ye stay with him."

Inuyasha's forest? Why was land named after him?

I nodded my assent, then she was turning around and shambling away again into the tree line.

I turned from where her white back had disappeared, sighing, then faced the abused tree again, resolving not to move until I landed an arrow right beside Kaede's.

So relentlessly I fired arrows, pausing to pull all but Kaede's from the tree when I ran out, then starting again.

I'm not certain how long I stayed there shooting; I ignored it when the soles of my feet started to burn and sheer stubbornness deafened me to all else but the occasional rustling of leaves, until suddenly there was a thud somewhere beside me.

"Hey, y'been at this a while. Aren't you going to take a break?"

The tension in the bowstring immediately went slack and I turned my head to the right, "Huh?"

Inuyasha took a step toward me, the dappled light sliding over the scarlet of his wide shoulders as he came to stand within a few feet of me, "You ah-" he dropped his head and his left hand came up to rub the back of his skull, "You should eat something. It's been hours."

I lowered the bow, letting the smooth wood press into the skin of my left index finger which I'd only just realized was burning, and pulled the arrow to hang lightly from the fingers of my other hand, "Oh, I guess." Eager to limit contact against my sore skin, I reached up and behind me to replace the arrow and slung the bow over my shoulders as I looked around, "What though? I don't really see anything."

He cleared his throat and dropped his arm, ducking his head, "I ah," it rose again and he looked around the clearing, then up into the trees, "I was, ah…I found these-" he was suddenly thrusting his right fist under my nose, "so take them."

I dropped my eyes and there in his hand, restrained by the cage of his long, slim fingers and claws were two little green apples.

My lids shot up and I breathed, "Oh."

He'd brought me apples. Actual apples.

This was just too perfect; biblical allegory through the fine lens of life.

Whether he knew it or not, he was my very own serpent to tempt me away from God, who in this case would probably be Kagome.

My brows lowered over my eyes.

Or maybe it was the seeds that were pertinent here, and he was actually my Hades tricking me away from Demeter-Kagome to stay with him.

…No, that last one was just wishful thinking.

God I needed to talk to Kagome.

His face seemed to scrunch up and dusky colour crested his cheeks as he kept his head turned away from me, shaking the fist under my nose, "Come on, don't just stand there – take them."

I leaned back on my heels and reached up my hands to pluck the apples from his fist with just my fingertips, not wanting to impose my touch on him when he was being so considerate.

"Thank you," I tipped up my head and looked at his cheek as he refused to give me his eyes.

"Yeah, whatever. Just sit down and eat."

Air puffed out of my nose and my lips stretched wide enough for my teeth to show, though I ducked my head a little to spare him my reaction.

He huffed a breath and finally turned his head to me, though his eyes stayed trained as far behind his left upper arm as he could manage, "Come on," then he was grabbing my wrist and pulling me along to the tree I'd been shooting at for an indeterminate period of time.

I pinned my bottom lip between my teeth to literally bite back my startled smile as my eyes widened.

What was this?

He was touching me casually of his own volition already?

I dropped my head, my cheeks inflamed.

I wasn't at all used to boys just touching me like that. How strange that this beautiful one would want to now.

Had I done something exemplary to deserve it?

I released my bottom lip to purse it with my top one instead.

No, I mustn't overthink this, if I did I'd ruin it. Besides, so what if he suddenly wanted to hold my hand; it didn't mean that I was any better this second than the one before, nor than I would be in the ones to follow.

He could do what he wanted and I would still be as I was.

When we were just in front of it, he dropped my hand and flopped onto his bottom, bending one leg and leaving the other sprawled in front of him as he rested his back against the trunk.

I looked down at him for a second to see if he would do anything else, but he only scowled off into the tree line a little to my right. So I turned around and swung my heavy hair over my right shoulder, smoothing my skirt to my bottom with the back of a hand, and fit myself between two of the roots beside him to rest my back against the trunk.

Shrugging off my bow and quiver to rest them on the other side of me, I brought up my legs to bend loosely so that my knees would be in front of me to make a pouch out of the skirt covering my lap. Then I rested one apple in the coil of dark hair in my makeshift basket and took a bite out of the other.

My airways suddenly shut and every muscle in my face seemed to try to twist into the others, my lips nearly disappearing into my teeth.

I heard a snort beside me and sucked in a breath through my nose as I turned to look at Inuyasha. His eyebrows were scrunched as he glared down at my left hip, "I know they're probably not in season but they were all I could find without going too far."

My eyebrows shot up and I struggled to buffer the taste in my mouth with a surplus of saliva.

Probably?!

I dropped my head to join him in glaring at my left hip and tried to concentrate on the dull pain in my forehead that came in the wake of furrowing my brows too aggressively, rather than the taste in my mouth as I forced the barely chewed mass of apple past the stubborn sphincter muscles in my throat.

I shouldn't be ungrateful. It was the thought that counted; at least he'd gone out of his way to get me something. Never mind _what_ he'd actually brought me – it was the fact that he'd brought me anything at all that mattered.

"I would've found something better if I could've brought you with me," I looked up a little to see the skin of his brow pulled tight beneath locks of his hair as he continued to glare holes into my hipbone, "but it's not like I could when you thought it was such a good idea to ignore everything but that damn bow."

I raised an eyebrow and he finally lifted his head to look at me, eyes blazing and ears twitching madly, "What's wrong with you? Say somethin' when you're hungry!"

Such a drama queen, this boy.

The cursed hunk of apple finally slid down my throat and all my facial muscles relaxed, "Don't worry about it."

He stared into my eyes a moment as if to judge my sincerity, then his little ears stilled and he grunted, turning to lean against the tree again.

Mimicking him, I put my back to the bark and looked down at the rest of the little green apple in my hand, as well as its aberrant twin in my lap as my tongue absently squeaked around inside my mouth.

Well, best commit.

I raised the apple to my mouth and bit, closing my eyes to the flavour. I mechanically chewed and swallowed and repeated the process until my mouth seemed to become coated in a layer of effective astringent.

At that point it really wasn't so bad.

As I chewed, I felt the blades of grass dancing against my hips and my mind returned to Kaede's parting warning.

Inuyasha's forest.

I wonder what he'd done to get something named after him.

I turned my head slightly to peek at him out of the corner of my eye.

He didn't seem the type for political ambitions but maybe I was wrong.

Then his gruff voice was sounding to complement my thoughts, "What is it?"

I turned my head fully to look up at him, "Hm?"

He snorted, "You keep looking at me like that, you'll strain your eyes. What do you want?"

I finished chewing my bit of apple and swallowed, "Oh, sorry."

He sighed, "Just spit it out."

My eyebrows came together, "You have a forest named after you."

His head moved to face me again and his eyes were wide under his own furrowed brows, "What?"

"Why do you have a forest named after you? Did you do something important, or is Inuyasha just a family name and it's actually named after a relative of yours?"

He just stared at me for a moment.

Then, "You wanna know about the name of the forest?"

I cocked an eyebrow, "Yes? Or you could tell me when you got these apples, because I didn't even know you'd left."

He paused, then the furrow between his brows deepened, "You're not gonna ask me about why I look so weird? Why I don't look like you or Kagome, or that old bat Kaede, or anyone else in this village? I checked with Kagome, so I know you're not used to things in this time - you have to be curious."

I put the apple in my lap with the other and laced my fingers around them as I straightened my back, "Well I could have asked you, but it seemed kind of rude. Also I wouldn't say you look weird; that has negative connotations."

He was now full out scowling at me, the cherry stain of his lips pulled tight to his teeth, "Don't beat around the bush. Ask me!"

I leaned back and matched his expression, "No."

The wind seemed to get knocked out of him and he deflated, wide eyed, "No?"

I maintained my posture, "No. I'm not going to ask you like that; like your differences are offensive to me when they aren't. And I didn't want you to think that they might be so I already asked Kagome."

He stared at me, "You asked…what did she say?"

The tension began to seep out of my shoulders, "That you're half demon."

His shoulders seemed to take on the tension mine had released, and they climbed halfway up to his ears, his face pinched, "And you don't think that's weird?"

I tilted my head to the side, my eyebrows relaxing into a softer furrow, "Well certainly I'm not used to it, but I don't think it's bad. And either way, you can't help the way you're born, so I could hardly hold it against you – not that I'd be inclined to anyway; I admit the range of violence you're probably capable of is wider than the average person if only because you're so strong and fast, but you seem nice, so I see nothing wrong with it."

He just stared at me.

I pressed my lips together, the muscles pulling my lips wider into an uncomfortable smile, "So, how 'bout the apples?"

He blinked, "Huh?"

I huffed a sigh, "The apples, when did you get them?"

His shoulders dropped back down and he returned to lean against the tree, "Oh, I left when you were practicing. You were so caught up it didn't look like you'd notice if I was gone for a while."

Drawn into the conversation, I hadn't realized that I'd turned my upper body to face him as well, so again calm, I allowed my left shoulder to take my weight against the wood, "Well you were right; I didn't."

His eyes ran over me, taking in my changed position, then the fire was igniting his eyes again, "What are you doing? Eat!"

I jumped, "Oh," then I shifted to put my back to the trunk and picked up the bitten apple, wincing, "right."

He sighed and tipped his head back against the tree, closing his eyes, "Just eat."

I bit the apple and chewed, then when my mouth was clear again, "But what about the forest?"

He didn't move, "Hm?"

"Why is the forest named after you?"

He sighed and cracked the golden eye closest to me open to lazily take me in, "It's a long story," his eyebrows met again and the other eye opened to ruefully join the first, "but it's not named after my family – Inuyasha is my given name."

I bit the apple again.

He'd put off the explanation, but was that a warning to me to know what I was getting into? Or a purposeful deterrent because he didn't want to tell me?

I chewed and swallowed, then bit again.

I kind of wanted to know, but maybe now wasn't the right time to ask? Exactly how would I ascertain that?

Swallowing my mashed up piece of apple, I dropped my eyes in case more privacy would encourage him to tell me, "Do you want to talk about it?"

A drawn out breath, then, "Maybe later, just eat."

I mumbled into the apple I brought to my lips, "Sorry."

"You say that a lot."

I bit the apple and raised my eyes to him again, "Hm?"

His bright eyes were both on me now as he tipped his head down to me, "You say 'sorry' a lot."

I chewed and quickly swallowed, "Oh, yeah. It's funny, because as I child I could never get myself to say it for anything, but now I say it too much."

I wondered if his eyebrows furrowing perpetually was my fault or just a thing he did.

"Why?"

I pulled my knees up to my chest and hugged them, feeling the remaining apple dig into my pelvic bone, "I was very shy as a child too, but it was expressed differently – I didn't like to show vulnerability; I didn't trust people with it, and I didn't see a reason to ever have to go so far as to put myself in such a position when my mistakes could just be explained away or compensated for."

I pulled in my left arm to the crevice between my knees and chest and lightly drew my pad of my index finger across the smooth skin of my knee, "But then I realized that it wasn't about me and how I was afraid to look when I'd wronged someone else. It was about them, and the least I could do was let them know how much I regretted my actions by shucking my pride - so I started saying sorry."

I dropped my eyes to inspect my finger on my knee, "And I guess now I've given myself too much practice worrying about people's feelings, so I've become hypersensitive."

He snorted, "You don't have to worry so much though – it's not like I'm mad at you all the time."

I raised my eyes to him again, as well as my left palm as though I were trying to surrender, "No I know, I just want- If I upset you I don't want you to think I'm not contrite."

He cocked an eyebrow, "If you had a muscle with that name I'm sure you'd have pulled it at least a hundred times over by now."

Soft bursts of air bubbled from my chest and my lips stretched to complement them, "Yeah, probably."

He snorted again, but the corner of his mouth tipped up and his golden eyes shone even as he shifted to look out again at the forest, "Now eat."

My breathing calmed but my smile remained even as I lifted the apple again to my lips, "Yes, yes."

~o0o~

In a few bites I finished the first apple, but finding nowhere to put the core, I gingerly laid it to rest in my lap and before I could think better of it, started on the second.

My skin itched for something, but I wasn't certain what it was until I felt my left hand reach to the forest floor to become tangled in the welcoming grass.

Goodness, I knew I hadn't touched the foliage directly in a few hours, but I didn't think I'd go into withdrawal over it.

It seemed that now that I'd become acquainted with that part of me, it refused to be quieted again. Perhaps I should have been at least a little disturbed by that, but capitulating here just felt so inherently calming that I couldn't bring myself to. So ceding to the inner peace I could find few other places than the plant life, I settled into myself and leisurely finished my second apple.

Once I was only left with two cores, I picked them up by the stems and held them before me.

What to do now…

I looked around, taking in the softer light of burgeoning sunset, the grass and the tall trees.

As beautiful as this place was, I hadn't been raised to live in an environment like this, and feudal Japan had a startling lack of modern garbage bins – especially out in the middle of the woods.

I looked back to the cores in my hands.

So where would I put the garbage?

I heard him take in a breath, "What is it?"

I turned my head to see he'd cracked open an eye at me again.

I guess he'd decided to take a nap.

"What do I do with these? I know they're biodegradable so I could technically just bury them or something, but that just seems wrong."

His brows came together, "What?"

He sat up and turned his upper body to me, holding out his hands, "Give 'em to me."

I pursed my lips a second, then lay the cores in his hands, "Alright."

He grunted, then turning from me, he twisted first one, then the other stem off. He picked out the seeds and sent them off like little missiles into the grass, then one after the other, dropped the cores whole into his mouth and ate them with only a moment's hesitation at their flavour.

My mouth went slack and my brows climbed my forehead as I watched him.

Well yes, I suppose that was certainly one way to get rid of them.

Once he'd swallowed them down, after having chewed for hardly any time at all, he was reclining to the trunk again, eyes closed.

I just started at him.

I didn't even know where to begin with that one. Never mind that he'd almost just inhaled his food – I couldn't be bothered to worry about it just then. But it was a good thing I wasn't the type to go off over indirect kisses, because what with him also having inhaled my saliva, I would have imploded.

And what was he trying to imply anyway, that he could be my garbage bin?

His eyelashes were long and dark as they brushed the pale skin of his cheeks.

He was far too pretty to be anyone's garbage bin. Then again maybe he'd just been lazy; I supposed volunteering as a garbage bin could be convenient. Provided one was given to that sort of thing.

One of his little white ears twitched.

For all that we'd discussed the fact of his differences before, we'd never really talked about his ears. I clearly gathered that he was half, but where exactly did his ears fall in that spectrum; did they look like dog ears but work like human ears? Could he consciously move them? If I blew into them as if I had a dog's, would they twitch?

His chest rose with a breath, and on the exhale, "What is it now?"

"Tell me about your ears."

He cracked an eye, "What about them? They're ears. They hear."

I pursed my lips, "Yes, but how well? And what sort of muscle connects to them; can you move them on your own or are they purely reactionary?"

He sat up and turned the entirety of himself to face me, then staring into my eyes, he quite deliberately moved them one way then the other, like little homing beacons on his head.

I breathed, bringing my hands to half curl at my chest, "Oh."

"And I can definitely hear better than humans. Makes me a better fighter and it's kept me alive a few times."

I hummed at him and leaned slightly toward him, "Can I touch them?"

Breath sawed out of his lungs and his brows dropped over his eyes, "Yeah sure, whatever. Just hurry up."

I leaned back, sort of curling into myself, "No I'm sorry. If you don't want me to touch them I won't."

Chasing my retreat, he leaned in to me, "What did I tell you about saying sorry all the time? If you wanna touch 'em, touch 'em. It's fine."

I scooted closer to him and straightened my spine, pressing my half-fists into the coarse fabric of my dust grey skirt and trapping my hair under one of my locked elbows, "You sure?"

He nodded but stubbornly looked away from me again, "Yeah it's fine, just do it."

If I was to be given such an opportunity, I would go about it properly. So I scooted right up to him on my knees so that there was only half an inch of space between my knees and his. The grass curled to tickle the skin of my thighs as I sat on my calves, clearly already having forgotten about the arthritis warning.

I raised my arms and lifted just a bit off my calves to hover my inquisitive fingers around his head. After pausing only a second, I "accidentally" brushed his pale hair as my fingers reached for his ears, then there was contact.

They were warm and alive and so terribly soft against the pads of my index fingers and thumbs; reminiscent of the softness of his hair but different in their membranous softness as opposed to the striated, fibrous softness of his hair. The inner curves were lightly fuzzy and I stroked my thumbs into them to feel it and their gentle heat. I vaguely felt him turning and reclining into the tree trunk, the vibrant fabric of his hakama whispering across my thighs as his legs parted, so I absently followed him on my knees.

My traitorous hands decided that then would be a great time to wander.

So though I kept massaging one ear, my other hand found its way into his thick, silvery hair. Gliding through the smooth strands and getting lost in the heaviness of it.

I was warm all over, but I didn't realize that wasn't just from my happiness or the grass dancing excitedly at my knees until I felt his breath puff against my upper lip.

All the air movement around us seemed to stop abruptly, or if it hadn't I was suddenly utterly unaware of it. He swallowed my concentration.

My hands halted in his hair and on his ear and I realized that that warmth I felt was from his skin through his clothes, because I'd somehow found my way between his legs. Again. His chest was only a few inches from mine and the heated bricks of his thigh muscles brushed my hips every now and then like touching me was some imperative they felt compelled to obey all on their own.

My mind stuttered. This was so far outside the realm of situations I usually found myself in that I just couldn't wrap my head around it.

I was close enough that his breath was having intimate conversation with my upper lip.

My heart seized and my eyelashes pressed tight to the lower line of my eyebrows, gaze locked with his.

I couldn't decide if I wanted it more than I could really understand in that moment – this position we were in, or if it frightened me purely for how unfamiliar it was.

From a distance it wasn't difficult to tell when his eyes were intense on me, but this close, it was impossible not to see how dilated his pupils were. The black centres were flared so wide they nigh swallowed up the molten amber of his irises, deepening them.

I read; I knew what dilated pupils meant.

The warm colour of his eyes, now almost a butterscotch, struck me immobile and he seemed to tilt his chin closer to me, the plump mouth he offered me such a dark pink it was like he'd just eaten cherries and stained his lips with the juice.

No. I definitely wanted it.

The breaths slowed to a stop in my chest and my eyes fell to the almost plum of his full lips. They shone dimly in the weak light like he'd licked them when I wasn't looking, and they were parted just enough that his fangs couldn't quite press into his plush lower lip. They were like slightly over ripe fruit, flush with colour and full to bursting with sweetness that threatened intoxication.

So much better than those God awful apples.

My teeth sank into my own bottom lip, seeking.

I wanted to bite them.

Though the index finger of my left hand felt like hot pokers were digging into it, I clung to him. My right hand slid down to grip his hair, the strands spilling over my fingers, and my left fell down uselessly only to finally find purchase in the fiery fabric at his neck.

My gaze felt welded to his and I saw his nose flare as he breathed me in.

I sucked in a breath.

My face was suffused in a cloud of heat, both from the embers burning in my whole face, and his warm breaths as he lightly panted near constant little puffs of air into the small space between us.

His eyelids dropped to half mast, then I felt a large, hot hand pressing into my lower back.

Maybe…

The hand pulled me closer, fingertips pushing into my back though his claws never pricked me, until there was barely an inch between our stomachs, and his breath puffed across my lips again.

I'm not sure I should…

The hand in his hair, connected to the rest of the heat I was conducting, began to sweat and I slid it down the length then underneath to grip the warm fabric covering his back, my full breasts flattening to his chest in the process and crushing the length of my hair between us. I tilted my head forward and breathed.

He smelled so good; like trees, rain, some sort of wood and a hint of musk.

But what about Kagome…?

His nose brushed mine and I began to sweat under my clothes, the bubble of air around us trapping the heat radiating from my skin, but it just made me want to press closer, my mouth parting to encourage it. To hold him to me with the gentle pressure of my lips.

I felt the softness of his top lip brush mine and gripped his clothes tighter.

Kagome.

I took a deep breath, squeezing my eyes shut, then pulled back, keeping my head ducked, "We should, ah- I need to…get back to practicing." And with iron will I pulled my fingers from his clothes and stood from the enclosure his legs had made for me. "Thank you- for the apples and your ears."

I took a step back, sliding my messy hair back over my shoulder when I straightened, and as his eyelids raised he grunted, utterly unperturbed by my awkward phrasing.

But though he stood as well and jumped back up into the boughs of the tree to watch me again, his glowing eyes never lost their intensity.

I bent to pick up my bow where I'd discarded it sometime before, trying to ignore the sweat beading on the back of my neck under my heaps of hair.

I needed to talk to Kagome soon, because the road to ruin was calling my name.

And it came bearing sour fruit.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N:Hello all, I know it's been a while but I have returned! I'm still not making any promises though because chapter 10 is only in the planning stages. It took me a really long time to figure out several things like how the timing of things would work out in a way that logically makes sense (if I still got anything wrong, I am deeply sorry). But that said, with my research, I realized that I had made a grievous error; I checked out some geographical things so that they would work with the premise I set, but in doing so, I realized that the high school I would end up specifying Kagome and Hisako attend up to his point had a completely different uniform from the one I'd been working with. And while I warn that I might still take some artistic liberties with it, there were certain things I couldn't ignore, like the colour of the skirt. So once I've posted this chapter I will be re-posting all the others to incorporate the changes as well as some minor editorial adjustments.**

 **I'm highly uncomfortable posting this chapter because as I've mentioned before, I usually like to have a few chapters after the one I post written so that I can keep going back and checking so that I can avoid major errors and things can be consistent. But I have been in the situation before where I beseeched the heavens for the author of a fic to just give me something, so I'm giving you something. Which is not to say that I assume that anyone thinks I'm good enough to warrant such a response, but just in case, here it is.**

 **As per usual, please forgive me for any grammatical errors I may have made and feel free to make me aware of them. Also, thank you all so very much for your comments; the feedback really makes me want to write more than a lot of other things.**

* * *

 **Chapter 9**

Never let it be said that I wasn't dedicated…

Then again, maybe I was just stubborn.

Because refusing to think about what I'd almost just let happen though my head felt like it might explode from the surplus of blood, I single-mindedly threw myself into shooting. My finger burned something awful and it was entirely likely I'd have blisters the next day.

But for all my dogged effort, it wasn't even like I was improving. My entire body was stiff and I was only barely looking at where I was aiming, so my arrows seemed to decide that meant they should land everywhere but Kaede's circle. Even when I tried to snap myself to attention to try to aim, that only translated to my arrows actually landing in the bark of the right tree.

To Inuyasha's credit, he never commented on my suddenly atrocious aim. Just watched me from his concealed tree branch. Then when the light began to truly die as night settled in, looking up to him all I would see were his glowing irises trained on me then flitting around the clearing, as though with his reflective eyes he'd decided to become my guard cat.

Odd that he should have reflective retinas; I knew that cats definitely did, but not dogs….

Maybe I just didn't know enough about animals.

Quite likely, yes.

In the dark shooting had become nearly impossible, and maybe if my target hadn't been under such a thick canopy, in stark contrast to where I stood bathed in moonlight – or at least had I been more accustomed to such conditions, I could have actually made some progress. Alas, all I really ended up doing was waste arrows.

I sighed and slung my bow across my chest, waving my sore finger through the air to try and calm the inflammation some and I again trudged to hunt for my arrows in the darkness.

A few lay uselessly on the ground, and as I bent to pick them up the grass slithered soothingly over my injured finger.

I rose and went to pull the remaining arrows from the surrounding trees, gingerly putting weight on my protesting knees.

I'd been standing still for entirely too long today, but my joints and appendages weren't the only injured parties here.

I pulled an arrow from the bark and ran my fingers over the hole left behind, feeling the tree's answering heat.

It wasn't upset that I'd shot it.

I closed my eyes, resting my forehead to the bark and reached within me. Though I still wasn't good at this I would stand here for as long as it took to help these trees, even if it didn't make sense yet to try to repair the one Kaede had stripped.

I stood with my eyes closed until I found the wellspring inside and pulled a hairsbreadth of light up and directed it to my fingertip, pressing it into the hole in the bark. I raised my eyelids to see that in the wake of the flamingo pink light, tiny sprouts were growing out of the hole and a bed of moss had risen from the bark around the area to enclose them.

I leaned back and lightly rubbed my fingers into the already heating moss.

I didn't really know what I was doing, but for the time being, this would do as a Band-Aid. So I went around to all the other trees I'd accidentally shot and gave them similar 'Band-Aids'.

When I'd finished I took a step back and contemplated the dark line of trees, sighing.

This was ridiculous; of course I wouldn't hit anything when I couldn't see anything. It was time to bite the bullet and go find Kagome.

I turned my head back, tipping it up to the branches of Kaede's tree to find glowing golden eyes, "Inuyasha? It's getting late, maybe we should go back?"

There was a flurry of movement, his bright red clothes shifting in and out of view as he jumped down from the deeply shadowed canopy into the light, then he landed in a crouch with a thud.

Illuminated by the moonlight as he was, it seemed wrong for his opal hair to brush the ground, but that was soon remedied as he stood and sauntered to me.

His bare, clawed toes spread and depressed into the grass and his lean hips rolled with the restrained power of his steps.

He was like a death angel coming for me in the night.

I was dimly aware of my heart throbbing in my rib cage and my breath whispering to a halt on an inhale as he came within a foot of me and I tipped my chin up to hold his unblinking gaze.

One dark eyebrow rose with the corner of his lips, "You won't faint this time, will you?"

Again, I bid the skin cells at my cheeks goodbye and pressed my lips together, staring stonily at him.

I refused.

He grunted, then his scent was all around me as he put a warm hand to my back and the other to the backs of my knees, lifting me to his height in one smooth motion.

I gasped and wrapped my arms around his neck, gripping the fabric there to my aching finger before I remembered that it was injured and abruptly loosed it to instead let my left arm drape there and the right to fall into my lap. But then wind and the most insistent atmospheric pressure were pressing heavily on me and I struggled to hold on to my breath so that I could hold on to my dignity and not faint. But regardless of whether I'd be successful at holding anything, we were flying back to the village.

~o0o~

I wasn't quite sure how he kept all my headless arrows from falling out of my quiver as he leapt with me in his arms from tree to tree, but I wasn't yet at the stage where I had the guts to find out, so after my initial glance at the moon in the dark sky and the dimly lit tree tops, I pressed my face into his neck with my eyes squeezed shut.

The temperature had taken a skydive with the sinking sun, and it seemed that in retaliation all the little hairs on my body had conferred and decided to present a united front in the face of the frigid breeze whipping past us. An army of defiant little pillars on the tiny hills of contracted muscle just beneath my skin, completely undeterred by the long billowing sleeves of my uniform shirt that slapped against them.

A fine shiver spread over the surface of me like a wave and in concert, my larger muscles locked to preserve what little heat I could, building strain behind my joints as well. I turned my nose into a convenient little pocket of air under Inuyasha's chin, and against the suddenly taut skin of his neck, I expelled a short burst of air through my nostrils. I hoped to warm at least the cartilage with my own wasted breath where my flying hair would offer me no respite. But as I pushed my lungs wide and dropped my diaphragm to repeat the process, the concentrated scent of him filled me.

I was inundated.

Each time before that I'd had the chance to be this close to him, I'd been too overwrought with emotion from a near death experience, or distracted by how very close his mouth had been to mine to really _smell_ him. All I'd gotten up to this point had been a portion of the top layer of him, but there was so much more.

My clenched eyelids relaxed and my eyelashes brushed his skin as I found myself running the tip of my nose ever so slightly back and forth over the surface of him, his own little hairs tickling me.

He was very much a product of his environment; the first thing one might notice within a foot was the earthiness of him: the petrichor from the times he'd chosen to stay outside in the rain rather than mingle indoors with the people he seemed to feel might judge him, the resinous, sweet sourness of the beech and unbloomed chestnut trees he'd put his back to rest against as he sat high in their branches. The hint of the darker, smoky, woody scent of the cedars he'd brush by as he ran, and the scent of the fainter depth of the soil he'd land on and insisted on traversing barefoot.

But beneath that was what I'd mistaken for muskiness; he was even deeper and fuller but more subtle, rounding out the smell of him with perhaps the rabbit or boar he might eat out in the woods.

I stilled the lateral movements of my head to push my nose lightly into the skin of his neck, all that he was rushing to warm the back of my throat and fill my lungs. My head felt almost disconnected from the rest of me, but I could do nothing less than release the breath to see if I could catch more of him.

As if his fragrance wasn't nuanced enough, I found that as I became accustomed to the upper notes of his scent, I began to find the most intrinsic parts of him. What was left once his surroundings and what he ate were stripped away.

He was nutty; delicate and sweet with the barest hint of darkness, like roasted chestnuts carried on a distant breeze.

I puffed another breath against his skin and took him in again, turning my head to press my cheek to his shoulder blade, my nose tucking itself into the space just behind his earlobe.

He was intoxicating.

Were people supposed to smell this good? Was everyone like this if one but took the time to pay attention to what someone smelled like?

I don't think I smelled this good – but then again I was hardly a good judge, having passively smelled myself my entire life. But while Kagome smelled alright, I hardly thought she smelled like anything within even the same league as this. Nor did any of my other friends. Not that I was actively trying to sniff them anyway – but one might argue that that could be a reason why.

Maybe it was his genes; because he was a half-demon? Or maybe he just had an exceedingly lucky family line?

There was a soft thump, and the sudden, but gentle press of gravity that urged the strands of my hair to pull at my scalp, the length of it swinging underneath me. My eyes shot open.

Inuyasha turned his head a little into me, his lips coming closer to my neck, and his heated breath brushed across my attentive little soldiers to coax them into submission, "Did you faint again? Or d'you just fall asleep?"

I pressed the hand resting on my lap into his chest and jerked my head back, eyebrows scrunching as I stared hard into his bright eyes, "I'm awake!"

He huffed a breath through his nose, the corner of his full mouth rising just a bit. Then he was turning and walking, "Well if you're awake, we're here."

I blinked, "Here?"

His arm at my back tightened even as he slowly loosed the one from beneath my knees and lowered me so that I could reach the ground, "Yeah. Kaede's."

The hand still on his chest drew the red fabric of his haori into my right fist and my eyes darted around as I stepped a little closer to him.

God I hoped no one had seen the way I'd shoved my nose into his neck.

Blessedly, my darting eyes landed only on shadowed gravel, trees and huts.

The heat and pressure of a hand pressed into my lower back, "You alright?"

I tilted my head up to him, blood rushing to my cheeks belatedly, and I dropped my hand to hop back from him, "Yeah, sorry."

His dark brows dropped low over his eyes, but he nodded his head to the hut, "Get inside."

I held my breath to keep from apologizing again and instead bobbed a small bow. Then I was scurrying through the doorway of Kaede's hut.

As I stepped over the threshold I was immediately greeted with the manifestation of Kaede's kindness: gentle light from the hot coals she'd lit, and a twenty-degree increase in temperature relative to the 40-degree tundra outside.

The backs of the people sitting around the coals cast shadows on the wooden walls but I ignored them to bend slightly and toe off my left shoe. I thanked any divinity who would listen for enduring social norms so that my poor pincushion feet could finally see the outside of dusty leather entrapment.

Raising my leg to press the sole of my abused foot gingerly into the smooth wood of the raised platform, I let the air seep out of my nose and bent a little farther forward, lifting my heel out of the other shoe. The thick cotton of my black sock voiced its friction against the rough inner side of the cured leather as I lifted my foot free.

"Hisako?"

I raised my head, hair falling over my shoulder after failing to find purchase on my almost horizontal back to see Sango looking at me, a tentative smile softening the line of her lips.

Caught, the muscles in my cheeks compulsively contracted.

"Hi." I slapped my other foot to the wood and hoisted myself up onto the platform, straightening as I went. Alas, my strained smile didn't last very long as with the sudden weight I put on my abused knees, it contorted into more of a wince.

I took a breath and tried to smooth the muscles of my mouth again.

Jesus.

The man in heavy black and purple robes to her left leaned forward to look at me through the space between Sango's chest and Kagome's left arm, his mouth slowly stretching wide, "How nice to have you back."

I shifted my weight to my right foot, incrementally angling my hips toward Kagome. The muscles in my cheeks relaxed a bit but my lips stayed pressed to my teeth, "Hm."

A gust of air behind me blew stands of my hair forward to tickle my cheeks and my spine stiffened, "Oy, lecher! Watch it!"

I dropped my chin a little, seeking succour from the worn wood at my feet while Miroku mumbled, "But of course Inuyasha."

Over the soft chittering of Shippou's laughter, Kagome's voice piped up, "Where've you been? I haven't seen you all day."

My chin raised and my mouth softened, my brows lightly coming together.

"I was starting to worry, but then Kaede told me you were with Inuyasha."

Heat blistered my entire face like I'd stuck my head in a furnace, "I- It- He was just staying with me while I practiced so I wouldn't have to worry about a repeat of last night."

She turned her torso to face me as far as it seemed she was comfortable, and she succumbed to her scrunching forehead, her full lower lip pouting just a little before she clearly made the active choice to press on despite her misplaced guilt with abruptly smoothed features, "'Practiced'? What were you practicing?"

From the bowstring I felt tight between my breasts and the length of smooth wood I felt pressing against the bones in my back through my uniform, it should have been obvious, but still I shifted my weight to my left foot to transfer the torture from the sole of my right, "Ah-"

She patted the empty space to her right I'd somehow not noticed, the corners of her lips stretching upwards, "C'mere. Sit down and tell me about it."

Seeing that the space Kagome indicated couldn't really accommodate more than one person, I turned my head to look back, Inuyasha's eyes pining me even as he nodded his head toward the spot. My eyes darted between the bare floor and his face, but under the weight of his insistent stare I hunched my shoulders and slowly picked my way to the space beside Kagome. Once there, I dropped my eyes as though sitting took all my concentration and smoothed my skirt to my bottom as I kneeled. Reaching for the wood at my back and its extension peeking over my shoulder, I lifted the bow from me and laid it to rest in my lap as though I were about to offer her a sword.

I finally raised my eyes but focused solely on Kagome's sweet face, "Kaede taught me some things today, and got me a bow," I broke off to turn to the other side of the coals at my right and bobbed a bow to her wizened, smiling face, then I was focusing on Kagome again, "so I was practicing with it in the forest."

"Do ye not think that ye are omitting a few details, lass?"

I turned to Kaede with eyebrows raised over large eyes.

A burst of air rushed through her nose but she raised a fist to her thin lips and tried to cover the sound by clearing her throat. Then as she lowered her hand to the lap of her nagabakama, she tilted her head down a little and closed her eye, "Young Hisako has made a few discoveries this day."

"What sort of discoveries?"

I looked past Kagome's left shoulder to see that Sango had leaned forward and was staring into Kaede's grave face, unblinking.

Kaede popped open an eye, and unable to keep up her act any longer, the corners of her mouth began to lift, "The child has great spiritual power."

Miroku leaned back, lacing his tanned fingers together in his lap, the smile back on his face, "Is that so?"

Though Kaede's own smile widened, somehow it bore no resemblance to the lascivious monk's, "Indeed; she is the reincarnation of Midoriko."

"What?!"

Sango's spine snapped straight and its upward reach seemed to extend to her eyebrows, but I leaned forward, palms half outstretched and turned to the floor, "Now- now let's calm down. It really isn't so exciting."

Kaede tapped one gnarled fingertip to the back of the other hand as an eyebrow rose, "Is that so?"

I sucked in a breath and drew my hands back to me, "A- Uh- Sure. The extent of my prowess at this point is spontaneous, mutant mini jungles. So really I'm quite useless."

There was a snort from across the room and I looked just beyond Miroku's right shoulder to see that Inuyasha had chosen to sit with his back to the wall. Perhaps he'd chosen the position so that he could watch us all if he chose, but both his beautiful eyes were closed, one leg drawn up and hands together in the sleeves of his haori as though he'd decided to sleep.

As though the wind had made the walls snort…

Good thing he didn't plan to pursue a career in espionage.

It probably wouldn't last very long.

I turned to glare at him though he couldn't actually see me, then looked to Kagome to gauge her reaction, but her eyebrows had taken up the challenge Sango's had thrown down and her mouth had fallen ajar.

I pressed my hands to my lap in front of the bowstring and clutched the grey pleats, my scrunched brows now aimed at the sly old woman taking the little scene in, "Kaede…"

Pockets of air puffed from her nose to complement her smile, "Alright child, I shall take pity on ye." She focused her attention on everyone else, "Hisako is indeed possessed of great spiritual powers, however, until she completes the proper training she will be of little assistance on the battle field. Lady Midoriko's reincarnation or no."

She leaned forward and pressed a palm to the ground as she heaved herself to her feet, her stark white tabi peeking out from beneath the hem of her flaming red nagabakama, "Until such time that she has been sufficiently trained, there be no need for this fussing. So we shall eat." She'd begun to shuffle to the end of the wooden platform and at its edge, she turned her head back, "Come Miroku."

He scrambled to his feet and hurried after her, "Yes, of course Lady Kaede." Then they both disappeared into the night.

In the wake of the excitement, despite being next to the coals my body temperature began to steadily drop as I calmed. A shiver radiated out from my chest and I scooted closer to them, curving my back and raising my hands to the nape of my neck to lift and spread my hair wide across my back. Then I huddled into my pseudo cape.

Thankfully, I didn't have long to sit staring at the bright red and black coals, contemplating my plummeting body temperature, because within five minutes Kaede was doddering back into the hut with a beset Miroku at her heels, hefting a large bucket.

She made her way slowly back to her place in the circle, only pausing to bend and pick up some thin sticks she'd bundled together against the corner closest to the entrance some time before. She took her time, negotiating her weight onto her knees as she lowered to the smooth, worn wood, and only when she'd come to a complete stop did she decide it was time to take pity on Miroku.

She raised her head to look at where he hesitated with the bucket a few paces behind my back, and when I turned to take him in I saw that there was a slight sheen to his brow and his eyes shifted from the ground to Inuyasha, then to my back, then to Kaede. She raised an arm to him, the end of the long sleeve brushing her thigh, "Come hither Miroku. I would like ye to place it here."

His chest suddenly depressed, then it was expanding again as he walked as fast as he could to her side without spilling what was in the bucket, his eyes now pointedly trained on Kaede's general vicinity. He came to her side and looked down at the floor, "Here Lady Kaede?"

She vaguely waved her arm to the small space between her and myself, "Yes, yes. Do not dawdle child."

He ducked his head, "Certainly," then he put down the bucket and was hastening to his place beside Sango.

Once he'd settled, Kaede raised her head to take us all in and when her gaze landed on me, her eye twinkled. The corners of the grin that spread across her face seemed to join with the ends of some of her wrinkle creases, but that didn't keep me from leaning back a fraction.

Her eye left me to flit back to the others, "Ye will all be pleased to know that we will be having fish this night."

Their confused silence bolstered her grin, as though she were laughing at a private joke, "It seems that the village men have had an unusually successful day at the river, as they no longer suffer impediments."

Sango's eyebrows knit together, "'Impediments?'"

Kaede's chuckle rasped across her vocal chords as she leaned forward to retrieve one of the sticks from the pile she'd placed before her knees, "Aye. Hisako has seen to it that they shan't suffer any difficulties catching fish for some time."

Kagome brought an absent hand to rub lightly against Shippou's stomach where he sat in her lap as she tilted her head to the side, "What do you mean, Kaede?"

Kaede reached a hand into the bucket, taking out a fish, and pressed the stick into it; kind of threading the thin wood through the creature, but all the while her eye was closed as though stabbing fish was one of her more relaxing past times, "Previously, the men in the village would have to compete with the demons in river for the fish, while at the same time ensuring their own safety from these demons." Having threaded the fish, she opened her eye and leaned forward again to put the stick to stand in the coal at an angle, then retrieved another stick and fish to repeat the process, her eye now half lidded as she focused on the dead fish in her hands, "Not so now; Hisako has cleansed the river of all demonic presence."

The soft slap of Kagome's other palm dropping to the floor punctuated her shock, "What?!"

My ears tingled and I dropped my chin to hide behind the curtain of hair that had fallen over my shoulder again.

"Oh?"

I raised my eyes to see that the sleazy monk had brought his hands to rest in his opposing sleeves and settled back on his tail bone. His eyes were half-lidded to help obscure the surreptitious glances he aimed in my direction, "It seems the young lady has already begun to make prodigious use of her priestess' powers," he raised his eyebrow so smoothly that the utter lack of skin bunching above it might have misled someone to think he did it without muscles, "however formally untrained she may be."

My chin jerked up making the stands of my hair brush my cheek as I forsook its cover, and my eyebrows dropped low over my eyes, "That's not-"

Kaede was a human assembly line, effortlessly threading fish and placing them in the fire, all the while with a closed eye and serene countenance. Her response was a hum that was at once so flat but so engaged that it could be taken as nothing short of ambiguous.

Miroku managed to look directly at me with only the barest tilting of his head, his eyes still half-lidded, "Since you've given a most adequate impression of being fairly advanced, perhaps you would prefer to… 'practice' with me? After all, I am a monk. Kaede is quite busy around the village, and since you obviously already have a grasp of the basics-"

I never even saw him move, but suddenly the sleazy monk was cringing in on himself and clutching his head as though he'd like to escape into his lap.

Inuyasha stood above him, back straight and stiff, his legs spread apart to assist his copious hair in taking up as much space as possible to assert his dominance.

My eyes widened until they'd go no more as I took in his seething face - beautiful even in fury, like an enraged god.

"What the hell d'you think you're doin' monk?!"

Though he was almost parallel with his own lap, Miroku still spoke, "Inuyasha please, you have it wrong! I was merely trying to offer her my assistance-"

Inuyasha's golden eyes positively blazed, "Keep your filthy mitts off her!"

He whipped his head up and met my wide eyed stare as though I'd purposely beaconed him. His eyes burned holes into me, and heat enveloped me, like I'd been covered in gasoline. My skin was in a riot, prickling. I was on the edge of a sweat and the back of my uniform shirt was pasted to my skin underneath the moist heat my heavy hair encouraged. As it seemed to be getting into a habit of doing, my air flow cut off, but in revolt my fingernails tried their best to cut into my palms though my skirt.

I was aflame, but it was so different from before; I'd never even known that just someone's eyes could physically make you feel hot until this boy. And though I'd barely known him a day, I'd begun to associate that impossible heat with his…intensity. And perhaps this could also be called 'intense', but it was somehow different.

Before I'd felt a little like he'd wanted to lay me out and eat me, now I wasn't quite sure if he wanted to commit genocide and then do it, or subjugate and restrain everyone _then_ make them watch him lay me out and consume me.

My lungs stuttered back into function, but were a little excitable about being allowed to avoid death by apoptosis, and so I found my vision wavering a bit in the haze of panting heat.

I tilted up my chin and found myself leaning in his direction, pulled to him by some tyrannical string.

I likely would have fallen over had I not been distracted from the idiocy of my near swoon by the sound of laughter.

I dropped my eyes from Inuyasha's to see Shippou almost bent in two with fits of laughter. Kagome had pulled her hand back to allow him some space, and now his little paws were kicking in the air, "Miroku…" he was almost choking, "…you idiot…"

From his position in his lap, the monk groaned, then a plaintiff, "Sango…"

Sango's back was ramrod straight and she'd made a point to angle her hips away from him so that she'd face Kagome and a sufficiently incapacitated Shippou, but though she'd also closed her eyes as if to shut out the entire fiasco, the corners of her full lips twitched, "You bring this on yourself, Miroku."

I leaned back and curled my spine a little, tucking my hair behind my right ear with my fingers then laid them to my still overwarm cheek. Air puffed like a well-kept secret out of my nose and though I fought it, I felt my lips stretching wide.

Goodness, this was the madhouse Kagome had been sneaking off to for who only knew how long?

I peeked up at the ruckus under my eyelashes then looked back down.

It was such a stark contrast to the environment we'd been raised in, but though it was undeniably chaotic, I couldn't bring myself to consider that a bad thing.

After a few minutes everyone had managed to compose themselves and Inuyasha had returned to put his back to the wall. Straightening my spine as it began to complain for sitting awkwardly for too long, I looked to the fish which were by now a nice golden brown, then to Kaede, who sat with her hands folded in her lap with her eye closed, some pre-threaded fish standing out of the bucket.

As I watched, she raised the translucent skin of her eyelid and took them in, "The fish are ready, ye may help yourselves to them."

Quick as a whip, Shippou shot forward to reach for a stick, then as he was about to touch it, Inuyasha came up out of nowhere, towering over the child, and swiped the fish.

Shippou screwed up his little face and pointed it at Inuyasha, "Hey, that was mine!"

Inuyasha plopped down just behind Kagome and Sango, apparently so that he could be closer to the food. He bit into the fish as though the myriad sharp bones and temperature meant nothing – but then after the apples, I really shouldn't have been surprised.

Utterly unperturbed by the child's indignation, his lids were low and his eyes focused on the fish as he leisurely chewed the gigantic bites he took. He huffed a breath through his nose, "Not anymore."

Shippou stood up in Kagome's lap and faced him, "You-"

One of Kagome's hands smoothed over his little back while the other reached for a stick, "It's alright Shippou." She took the stick from the coals and held it before his button nose, "Here, you can have this one."

His hands grabbed the fish then he was stuffing as much as he could of it at one time into his mouth, "Thanks Kagome."

Sango reached out to take her own fish, absently blowing on it as she stared into the coals. Following her example, I took my own and blew on it even as Kaede stuck in more to be cooked.

Miroku's eyes flitted over to Sango, then dropped into his lap as his face fell and he groaned.

My brow creased, but no one said a word.

Miroku hunched into himself and groaned again, "Sango…"

She sighed, "Yes Miroku?"

He heaved a sigh and further physically deflated with the expulsion, "Please dear Sango, would you get a fish for me as well? I fear I am unable to do it myself."

"No."

I bit the inside my bottom lip and pursed my lips to keep them from spreading.

"I beg of you Sango, please provide me with this one bit of assistance; I'll ask nothing else of you. I would have gotten it myself, but I think Inuyasha also injured my arm when he hit me."

Shippou mumbled into his fish, "Good."

Sango sighed, but not having heard Shippou, she leaned toward the coals again, "Alright Miro-"

She squeaked and jumped, her hand curling into a half fist as it hovered just before a stick.

I released my lip and raised an eyebrow.

Then Sango was rounding on him, and with the hand she'd been using to get the fish she slapped his left cheek so hard he rocked with the momentum.

I choked and raised a hand to cover my mouth, grateful I hadn't actually begun to eat yet.

Seems she wasn't exempt from his attentions either. I'd begun to wonder.

Sango's entire face pursed and she was stiff as a board, hands clenched into fists as she shuffled herself to have her back face the wall again. A muscle ticked in her jaw but she brought her own stick-o-fish to hover above her lap and forced a sharp breath through her nose.

Then she raised her chin and looked at me, "Hisako."

My head jerked to the side from where I'd been looking at the sleazy monk who had already moved on from having been beaten by two different people in the space of some twenty minutes, and I met her gaze with wide eyes, "Hm?"

"So we've established whose reincarnation you are, which to some extent explains how you came to be here and the way you commune with nature."

I pulled myself back, and though my muscles pulled my cheeks wide and my lips pressed tight to my teeth, I forced myself to speak, "Yeah?"

Sango shifted the stick so that it was cradled between the thumb of one hand and the index finger of the other while their respective opposites provided support and loosely laced the rest, "But the question of _why_ you are here still remains."

My cheeks ceased to strain themselves and blood filled them just under the epidermis, "Well, Kaede says that it's because I have some purpose here."

Sango's shoulders relaxed and her slight smile was conciliatory, "Yes, I'm certain that is likely the case. I only wish to figure out the root of that purpose."

My eyebrows met and scrunched, "Root?"

Her dark eyes were soft, "Yes. It is obvious now that Naraku did not bring you here himself, but can we be certain that he did not urge you to bring yourself here?"

Inuyasha snorted and reached for another stick, and realizing that I'd yet to begin to eat, I picked off little bits of fish and put them in my mouth and chewed, "Hm."

Kagome handed Shippou his second fish, and as she reached for her first her brows mirrored mine, "But that doesn't make any sense. What would someone as evil as Naraku do with basically his polar opposite?" She picked off a piece of fish, "I mean, take the Shikon jewel; he knows from example that that probably wouldn't work," she put the fish into her mouth.

Miroku swallowed the last of his fish – apparently he'd inhaled it while no one was paying attention, "Kagome has a point, but perhaps he is planning something of such a large scale that he would lure an untrained, future equivalent of the only priestess who could single-handedly stop him in his tracks, so that there would be no possibility of her becoming an issue."

There was another ambiguous hum and I looked to Kaede, but her face was utterly void of expression.

Sango picked at the fish, the earlier tension having bled from her back, "It's possible – I can't think of another reason why she would have come here," her eyes narrowed and she stared again into the coal, "but if that is the case, then we must make certain that Naraku can't get to her."

Shippou's high voice piped up, "Does that mean she's leaving then?"

Kagome smiled down at him, wiped the fingers of her free hand in her skirt and smoothed his hair, "Maybe. But we don't know yet if she even can, so we're probably going to try soon."

Shippou hummed his understanding and dropped his head to go back to doing his best to consume the fish whole.

No one really spoke for a while after that, either too focused on eating or subdued from the sombre topic of conversation. But regardless of their reason, once everyone had finished eating, Kaede apparently saw no reason to continue to honour the silence.

With a wizened hand she gathered the sticks into a neat pile to her right, then she gestured vaguely to the back of the hut, "Miroku, would ye bring more coal for the fire? These old bones protest too much for me to retrieve it myself just now."

Miroku's eyes got wide at being addressed out of the blue, then he was rising to his feet and bowing, "Yes of course, Lady Kaede," and he turned on his heel and went to the shadowed back section of the hut.

Kaede's eye looked us over, "I thought perhaps ye girls would prefer a warm bath. This night is quite a bit more chilled than the previous; I would not have ye undressed out of doors overlong and risk a draft."

Kagome's face lit up and she sat a little straighter, " _Yes_ , that's a wonderful idea Kaede!"

Sango's smile was small but none the less sweet for it, "That would be lovely, thank you very much Kaede."

The labyrinth of lines in her face convoluted as her thin lips spread wide, "I have the large pot in the back with which ye could heat the water. However, one of ye would have to retrieve the liquid."

I jumped a little on my knees, "I'll go."

Kaede's smile fell and her brows came together as she looked at me, "But ye cannot go alone, child. T'is best ye not wander about in the dark before ye have been properly trained."

I turned my head to the left, "Kagome, will you go with me?"

She pulled back, her eyes wide, "Oh! Uh, alright."

Kaede's expression didn't let up, "Are ye certain? The buckets will be quite difficult to carry once filled, and there is a chill on the breeze."

I rested my weight back on my thighs, my hands falling on either side of me to the floor, already preparing to help me rise, "Yeah, sure. It's fine."

Kaede sighed, "Even so, lass, I would not like for the two of ye to be walking about alone in the dark."

"But of course I will accompany them!" Miroku practically jogged from the back of the hut with the coal in what looked like a little burlap sack, "It would be my honour to see to the ladies' safety, and of course I would be there to help them should their burdens become too difficult to bear."

A flash of red, then the depraved monk was folding down on himself, the coal dropping and rolling in every direction. Inuyasha stood behind him, arm still raised to beat him again, "Keep it up, monk. I dare you."

Miroku grabbed his skull, then half turning to bow to Inuyasha he dropped to his knees and began to collect the scattered coal; the picture of subservience, "Inuyasha, you must believe that I only meant to volunteer my services-"

Inuyasha's eyes were ablaze again and he punched the licentious swine's crown once more for good measure, "No one wants your damned services, crooked monk!"

Inuyasha lowered his arm then stepped to the side, away from Miroku's searching hands, and looked to Kaede, "Don't worry old hag, I'll keep an eye on 'em."

She brought her hands together in her lap and rocked back a little, her eyelid drooped as she stared him down, "See to it that ye do."

Kagome lifted Shippou off her lap and put him to stand beside her, then Kaede was directing us to the two large buckets also obscured by the shadows to the rear of the room. We picked them up and as soon as we got out of the hut, Inuyasha was bounding away into the trees, presumably to get a better vantage point. So Kagome and I meandered along down the dirt path.

I looked over to her. Her cheeks were alabaster in the moonlight, her dark hair competition for any patent leather, "So where do you think we should get the water? The river seems like the obvious choice, but the sudden surplus of fish might make it a bit hard to get the water." I looked down at my own hair where the ends swung with my gait, a few shades shy of the sleekness of Kagome's jet black shade. Then I looked back up at her before she could notice my lapse.

"Maybe," she looked up to the dark sky as she thought and I felt my muscles beginning to clench in effort to retain some of my pitiful body heat. "We could go to this little pond that Kaede'd taken me to for a bath when I'd first come here."

I hummed my acquiescence and though my muscles were already doing their best to lock, we meandered to the river, going in the opposite direction of where I'd gone earlier that day.

As we walked I looked around but I could hardly make out anything, it was so dark, and turning my head up to scan the trees, I caught no glimpse of glowing amber.

I suppose he'd decided to work on his espionage skills.

"Kagome, you don't suppose Inuyasha can hear us, do you? I can't even find him."

She hummed, and I dropped my chin to see that she'd to take a little glance around too, "Maybe not," she turned her head to look at me, "why, are you worried?"

I swallowed, "No, not really."

There was almost perfect silence for a few minutes, completely undisturbed but for the occasional bird, then, "Speaking of 'when you first came here', when was that exactly?"

The gravel crunched a little longer as her foot dragged, "On my fifteenth birthday."

I hummed at her, "That's quite a while."

She agreed.

"So you're used to everything and everyone here? Do you like it, like beyond whatever answer you might want to give out of a sense of obligation?"

Her lips stretched and I could see the shadows the apples of her cheeks cast, a little laugh huffing through her nose, "Yeah, I do. It's actually really nice here," she dropped her head to look at the ground, "you know, when you ignore the raging demon population thing." She raised her chin to look forward again, her expression smoothing, "And even that's not so bad with Inuyasha here; he really does his best to make us all feel safe," the corner of her mouth lifted, "Even if he doesn't like to say it."

I turned my own head forward, but a hint of a smile pulled at my lips, "Hm."

I shook my hair to fall around my shoulders to get what warmth I could from it, and silently bemoaned my half bare legs. What I wouldn't give to get my vest and blazer from my school bag.

If my lack of forethought didn't eventually kill me, pneumonia probably would.

"Are you thinking about how it'll be if you can't go back?"

I gripped my bucket behind my back so that it bumped against the backs of my thighs with my steps, "Sort of."

"When would you want to try – to go back I mean?"

I bit the inside of my cheek, then released it, "Tomorrow, in the afternoon at the latest. My parents will be expecting me back from your house about then. So I'll know if it doesn't happen then, it's not going to."

She sighed, "Do you worry about what it means if you can't pass through?"

My fingers percussed against the bottoms of my palms where they were curved around the handle of the bucket, "Yes and no. I feel bad about my parents and how bereft they'll feel if I don't come back, but I also think I'm starting to see what you like about this time." I raised my face to the night sky, "The air is cleaner, there's no superfluous urbanization, and I feel like the people might be a little less complicated." I lowered my face to raise the corner of my mouth at her, "And with Kaede training me, I don't even feel like the 'raging demon population thing' needs to be such a problem." I turned to face forward again, "At the worst, I'll be a little bored, or get sick or injured and possibly die for lack of modern medicine. But I'll not worry about that now; I'll cross that bridge when I get to it."

She huffed another little laugh as we turned a gentle corner, following the river to where it emptied into a small body of water, and we came to the bank.

"Kagome."

"Hm?"

We'd both stooped and now she was focusing on filling the bucket with the frigid water.

"I have to ask you something."

Her teeth glinted in the dim light as she smiled, "Go ahead, I won't bite."

I dropped my chin and focused on pushing my bucket into the water, "Ah…"

Then I realized that my hair had quietly decided to take a swim, so I had to gather it all at the nape of my neck and loosely twist it. Then too lazy to commit, I left the dark length to rest on my shoulder.

"Th-…mmm…" Heat bloomed in my cheeks and for once I thanked its appearance; at least now my face would be a little warmer.

Kagome quietly waited me out, pulling her bucket to rest beside her for however long I might prevaricate.

"Just, ah…y-you…Oh God," I put my palm to my forehead and squeezed my eyes shut, then resolutely dropped the palm, opened my eyes and turned my head to face her, "Are you and Inuyasha a thing?"

Her teeth glinted again and she puffed out another brief laugh, "Is that all this was about?"

My eyes got wide and my eyebrows came together, my eyes looking around before they came back to her as though I could search out the thing I was missing, "…Maybe?"

She stood, hefting the bucket with her, "Come on."

"Ah."

I stood and pulled my bucket from the water, deciding to bear the weight of the it in front of me even if it made me slower, lest I sacrifice all this effort. Then I followed her back onto the path, "So…no?"

She snuck a quick glance to smile at me but was forced to face forward again so that she could negotiate her load, "No, not at all. There'd been a point where I'd had a small crush on him, but some stuff happened and even though they worked themselves out, I decided that making my own identity here was more important. Kaede agreed to let me be her apprentice a few months ago and she'll give me things to do and herbs to memorize sometimes – really I'm much happier focusing on that."

I scrunched my brow, "'Some stuff'?"

She sighed, "Yeah, it's not really my place to talk about it, but maybe he'll tell you one day."

I looked down at the ground as we walked, "Hm," then I looked across at her briefly before I was forced to look forward again, "so, it's alright if – like, not that I think anything will come of this because it probably won't, but just in case…if…if ah…"

"If you went out with him?"

I sputtered and the words spewed out of me, "Well we can't really 'go out' here, you know? There just aren't the modern amenities here to support that sort of thing so I'm really not sure we should call it that."

"But you want him to be your boyfriend."

"Now it really isn't anything so dramatic, and it's not even like I've decided anything yet – I don't even really know anything, you know? And it's so presumptuous to assume that even if I knew what I was doing or exactly what I wanted that I could get that far, you know? So- so maybe we shouldn't call it anything…like that."

She was almost full out laughing at me now – if we didn't keep it down Inuyasha would hear, "Right."

I clenched my fists around the handle, "It- ju- I-"

She had an almost continuous chuckle going on, "Relax Hisako, it's alright. If you want him that's fine; you can explore whatever sort of relationship you want to try out with him."

I bit the inside of my bottom lip, my brow furrowed, then released the tissue, "You sure? You won't be upset?" I stole a glance at her, "I don't want to do anything that would upset you."

There was a gentle puff of air out of her nose, then, "I'm sure. I'm really not into him that way anymore, and I haven't been for a while."

"M'kay."

We stumbled back to Kaede's hut, whereupon Kaede decided that we hadn't brought back enough water. But since Miroku had been so eager to volunteer before, she was sure that he would love the opportunity to help now. So Miroku was sent out carrying the two buckets with Inuyasha as his shadow.

When they came back, the water was heated and the guys were evicted from the premises, I mopped myself clean with a cloth rag of Kaede's. But though passively, I was grateful for the additional external heat, actively, I could think of nothing but my conversation with Kagome.

It was all well and good that I now basically had her permission to maul him, it just remained to be seen what I would do with it.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Hello all! I'm sorry for the long absence but I got too busy to write, then when I managed to get a little free time I just didn't want to. Again I'm sorry, but I am kind of back on track. I'm still not making any promises because chapter 11 isn't finished yet, but most all of the story has been planned out so it's just a matter of me having the time and the will to write it. I shouldn't ever have reason to cry writer's block - at least not for this story.**

 **All the same, I literally just finished writing this chapter and I've only gotten to read it over once, so I'm not absolutely sure that everything is as impactful as I'd like it to be or that it's all grammatically correct, or that all the spelling's fine, or that everything is consistent (though I'm slightly less worried about that one for this chapter). I'd contemplated sitting on it for another week so I could have a bit more of a chance to look at it with fresh eyes, but then I remembered that I'd been silent for like, months - so I'm just going to post it and do my usual retrospective editing (dear God I hope nothing major is wrong) so that the silence can be ended. If anything is wrong with it, I am deeply sorry. I hope you find it within yourselves to enjoy something about it regardless.**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing but the original characters who appear in this story; I don't own the rights to InuYasha.**

* * *

 **Chapter 10**

Perhaps it was the glorified sponge bath after handling frigid water and nearly freezing half to death outside the night before, or more reasonably, exhaustion from my diligent practice earlier in the day, but I woke like one coming out of a coma.

Awareness came to me with the suddenness of someone flipping a light switch, but that only made me that much more aware of the dead pieces of meat I had the audacity to call limbs. My arms and legs were heavy; leaden. The most movement I could muster was a spasmodic twitch of my right index finger. And for all that it was the smallest isolated section of skin on me, and therefore should have been the first thing I unconsciously moved, I never opened my eyes. Either because I was unable, or out of a private contentment to remain as I was. My mind skirted the edge between pleasant and unpleasant fuzziness, and I was at once cognizant of my cadaverous limbs and ignorant of my breaths. I suppose they'd been too shallow – what with me having been awake for some 10 minutes, because I suddenly sucked in a long breath through my nose.

Loud and obnoxious though it was, the oxygen in that aggressive suction was the electricity to my Frankenstein impression. My back hunched then arched as my arms pushed me up with elbows locked in silent rebellion of remaining recumbent, my eyes popping open.

"Hisako?"

My head turned to the right, tangled, dark brown hair falling over my left shoulder, "Hm?"

Kagome's slight smile widened at the huskiness of my hum, and I saw that Kaede, Sango and Shippou had turned to see what had caught Kagome's attention.

They were sitting around the little pit of lit coals and speared fish like last night, and as my eyes strayed to the bright red coal I abruptly realized that I wasn't cold.

Small graces.

"You're finally up, we thought you'd sleep all day."

I dragged my legs under me to bend them loosely to the side, then raising the right leg to stand upright in front of the other I dropped my chin to my knee and used a hand to rub my eyes, "What time is it?" I cleared my throat.

When my eyes could maintain a reasonable openness, I saw that Kagome's head had tilted to the side, eyebrows drawn together in wry amusement, "Almost 1:00."

My raised knee dropped at the opposite angle of the other one on the straw futon to cross at the shins, my spine shot straight and I shoved my fingers into the roots of my hair at my forehead, "Shoot."

"Indeed," Kaede's rumbling voice held a sliver of the kind of dignified reproach I'd only ever seen the elderly master.

I dropped my hands to my lap, looking at my upturned palms and bit the inside of my bottom lip.

Kagome's chuckle brought my eyes back to her, features again relaxed, "Are you hungry? We were about to have lunch."

I lifted my head to look at her and my brow knitted to raise up into my forehead, but I nodded.

Kaede took a fish from the bucket to spear and roast it over the fire for me and with a newly smoothed expression, I walked gingerly over to plop down in between Kagome and the wall. All the while I carded my fingers through my hair to get out as many tangles as I could.

My concern about hypothermia notwithstanding, there was something to be said for spring water riding the tail end of winter; my fingers that had been so sore the day before now felt mostly fine. I supposed the icy water had acted as a cold compress for them or something of the like, but it was a singularly unpleasant way to sooth inflamed skin, so when I practiced today I would need to be more aware of my limits – or come better prepared.

As I tugged my fingers against a particularly stubborn knot, I had a rough look about the room, my brows attempting to kiss again.

"What's wrong Hisako?"

I turned to my left to look into Kagome's inquisitive brown eyes, "Where are Inuyasha and that monk?"

Kagome's hand rushed to her mouth, the back pressing into her lips as she shook with silent laughter. When I looked past her, I saw that the corner of Sango's lips had quirked up and her eyes were half lidded, "Inuyasha went out to patrol the outskirts of the village, so he'll likely be back soon," she dropped her head and there was the sound of air puffing out of her nose before she raised her face to me again, her smile twisted and sardonic, "…however I imagine that 'the monk' will be about doing his usual rounds."

I finally loosened the knot, so having deemed my hair smooth enough I shook it out a little and tucked some of it behind my left ear as I focused on Sango who had just retrieved the first golden brown fish, "Rounds? You mean he's going to individual houses to pray for the families?" I raised an eyebrow, "I'm surprised, I would've never thought him capable of any diligence actually having to do with his job."

Kagome choked, but before I could inquire after her health, Shippou piped up from in between Sango and Kaede where I'd missed seeing him beyond the coals and fish, "Pray? That's funny." He crossed his little arms and legs and looked disdainfully into the fire, "He's not going to pray for the families. He'll probably use that as an excuse but we all know he's just using it to be a pervert."

I interlaced my fingers in my lap, raised my eyebrows and leaned back into my spine and tailbone, "Ah."

Seemed the monk was dedicated enough to make an entire livelihood out of his depravity. It was a little ironic that while I should never have expected something so drastic purely because people just didn't usually go that far, I still wasn't exactly surprised.

I took in the bitterness souring Sango's expression and sighed.

Truly it was sad, but I almost wanted to stay with the group just so I could see how Sango would bring him to heel.

I reached for a fish and held the stick in my hand as I waited until it had cooled enough.

"What are your plans for today child? Do ye wish to explore the village, or will ye practice again?"

I looked to Kaede where she sat almost flush with the wall, "Well I think I already saw most of the village yesterday, and I'd rather I be incompetent for as short a time as possible, so I'll likely go practice again."

She manifested a labyrinth out of the pre-existing wrinkles in her tanned forehead as her eyebrows drew together, "Then I regret that I need inform ye of this, but I will be unable to accompany ye as I had before; there are many things to see to in the village that I neglected in order to teach ye."

I sucked in a breath and the tension translated into a hand pulled into a half fist at my stomach and a scrunched face, "I'm s-"

"However, that is not to say that I will not be able to supervise ye at a later date, there is simply too much to be done today."

I deflated, "Oh."

She replaced a fish in the fire for the one Shippou took then tilted up her chin and folded her hands neatly in the lap of her nagabakama as she held eye contact with me, "Thus in my absence, I think it would be wise that ye bring along Inuyasha; that at the very least your safety may be ensured."

Even as my cheeks flared with gentle heat at hearing his name, I quirked an eyebrow.

'At the very least' huh? How very pointedly she makes no mention of the only other person here really qualified to both train and protect me.

It served that lewd monk right for being a womanizer.

I tested the fish with the fingertips of my other hand, then deeming it cool enough I picked off a piece, "Alright," and I popped it into my mouth.

We ate in comfortable silence for a while but soon Kagome's voice was prodding at the blanket of quiet.

"So Hisako, I know you want to try the well this afternoon, but how do you want to do this exactly?"

I flipped the fish I held to the side I'd yet to set upon, "Well I was thinking that just as the sun started to set we would go to the well to try."

I looked around and gauged the crowd, "I'm not sure how many people will want to come along but I think at the very least, I need you and Inuyasha."

She tilted her head to the side, and though the smile that stretched her lips was small, it still managed to look a little smug, "Inuyasha? Why him?"

The muscles at my brow viciously contracted even as the blood heated my cheeks, "Because as far as I can tell, he's physically the strongest person I've met here and it's not like I can ask a complete stranger to wait at the bottom of a well and catch me if my theories prove false and I _can't_ disappear into thin air and travel five hundred years into the future."

She brought her hands together to rest in the lap of her pleated grey skirt and ducked her head a little, but though she mimicked contrition, I could still see the mischievous little sparkle in her eye, "Alright, I hear you."

My glare didn't let up, "So I need him to stand at the bottom of the well on this side and make sure I don't get a concussion if I don't make it through. But I need you to go through to the present and wait there for me, so if it works you can tell your mother what happened for me – because I don't even want to begin to think about how I'd explain that, and we can plan what to do next."

Sobering, Kagome straightened and nodded, "Alright, that sounds like a good plan."

My answering hum was ambiguous as I drank water from one of Kaede's little bamboo cups and went about eating the rest of my fish.

When everyone finished some fifteen minutes later, we gathered the bones into a pile Kaede would later have Miroku bury and returned the sticks to her for when the group would inevitably be having more fish.

I rose from my spot on the floor, my palms pressing into the smooth wood to help me up onto my protesting knees, and picked my way over to the straw futon I had been sleeping on.

Inuyasha's image flashed in my mind, his face twisted in righteous fury when he realized I'd shown up to practice more or less empty handed as I rolled the mat. If the day before was anything to go on, there was a fair chance he'd give me flack if I didn't come up with something to feed myself.

I picked up the rolled up mat and walked gingerly to the right corner toward the back of the hut and grimaced.

Where was I supposed to get food in a village I didn't really live in, at a time of year where apparently next to nothing was in season? And it wasn't as though I knew anything about edible roots I could dig up.

I raised my eyes as my fingers left the straw and I straightened, landing on Kaede's white, hunched back to my left.

I bit my lip.

Was a little lecturing really that bad? I was a big girl; I could handle it.

Probably.

The muscles in my face all seemed to draw each other down simultaneously and I heaved air out of my lungs.

God, I hate everything.

"Ah…Kaede?"

She turned her head to look over her shoulder to meet my eyes, "Aye lass?"

I brought my hands together in front of my lap, the fingers tightening into fists over each other, "I ah…I'm really sorry to impose on you more than I already have, but I was wondering if, since I had planned to practice right up until we meet at the well, if you happened to have anything around that I could have for lunch?"My fingernails dug into the skin of the backs of my hands and tension bunched the muscles in my shoulders, "It doesn't have to be big or anything, and if you don't have anything to spare it's totally fine, I just…I just thought I'd ask since I wasn't really sure where…"

And dear God bless him but I couldn't do those apples again- I just couldn't.

Her eyes, which honestly hadn't even looked the least bit hard or sharp before, softened as she took in my hand-wringing. Raising a deeply tanned, gnarled hand, she gestured me toward her, "Come child."

I fair hobbled over to her and bending over a large wooden bucket, she raised the cover, took out some rice and pressed it into four almost hefty triangles.

She wrapped each in what might have been small sheets of bamboo then reached for a burlap sack, "'Tis a shame ye had not said something sooner, I could have had a look about to see if I didn't have anything dried to put in the middle."

She turned and handed the sack to me, her cheeks rising though her smile was a modest thing in her face.

I bobbed a bow as I accepted it, keeping my head lowered so that I could see very little above her chin, my ears hot, "Thank you Kaede, I'm sorry."

The sudden touch to my right cheek startled my eyes upward to find that her smile had widened, "'Tis nothing at all child. Ye may always ask for anything you need; there is nothing to be ashamed of."

My cheeks and ears burned hotter and I clutched the shoulder strap of the burlap satchel in a death grip, my fingertips exploding in pins and needles, "Sor-"

Inuyasha's face flashed in my mind again and I bit the inside of my cheek, bobbing a little bow again.

Air puffed out of Kaede's nose, her lips stretching wider and the rough palm of her hand gave my cheek a gentle pat, "Alright, off with ye."

I bobbed a little unnecessary nod then slowly made my way to the wall by the entrance where several of the weapons had been set to lean. I picked up my bow and quiver, slinging them over my shoulder and fumbling a little out of a lack of familiarity. I rested my right palm against the wall to stabilize me as I bent my knees to slip a foot into one of my dusty black school shoes and Kaede called to me.

I turned to see that the muscles around her thin lips had become a little pinched to complement the small furrow that had grown in her brow, "Remember to stay with Inuyasha. Please, it is not yet safe for ye to wander alone. Do not become reckless in the discovery of your abilities."

I ducked my head at her concern, the heat finally starting to leave my cheeks, then I stepped down to slip on my other shoe, turned to face her and bowed, "I will."

I rose, made eye contact with her for as long as I could manage without looking creepy, then I turned and walked into the early afternoon sun.

 **~o0o~**

I was immediately pelted with wind, but everywhere it made contact with me: on my hands, legs and cheeks it stung. The gust had stirred up the dust so now everyone was fair game for target practice. It was so strong it was a wonder we hadn't heard it from inside the hut.

I raised my arms to block my face and turned my back to the wind, my skirt flapping against my upper thighs. I felt my hair spreading and waving around me, getting caught up in the riot of sediment and brushing my hips. But though it was likely to be coated in dust at the end of this fiasco, I was glad for it because it helped block me from the wind some – the parts of it that weren't slapping me in the face anyway. I started walking to try to find the side of Kaede's hut so I could block another one of my sides, but suddenly the wind cut off.

Creasing my brow faintly, I lowered my arms only to feel something brush one. I thought it might be my hair being pushed by the eddy current petering out, until I opened my eyes and saw white.

But that didn't make sense; my hair wasn't white at all.

I turned my head, following the length of silvery white up to the bright eyes and fine boned face it belonged to.

Inuyasha.

The wind hadn't really stopped at all. Now that I listened, I realized that I could still hear it, but I felt none of it because Inuyasha had followed me and tucked himself at my back to shield me from the brunt of the wind.

My eyebrows rose with my lids at the realization and I turned fully to face him, my head tilting up to see his eyes, so bright they were like gold coins in his face despite the manufactured shadow his silhouette cast.

Before I could think better of it, my fingers reached up for his shirt and pressed lightly into his breast bone. Either in answer or to better shield me, he crowded me closer into the wall of Kaede's hut – now on the point of just backing me up against it.

I licked my suddenly dry lips, "Inuyasha?"

At the sound of my voice, his eyes seemed to darken; the startling gold deepening to amber and his pupils widened to take more of me in.

He grunted and raised his left hand to press against the wall where he was more closely blocking me off from the world with his body.

Heat floated up to my head as I breathed steadily in, my lips falling open and I loosely clenched my fists in the striking crimson of his haori.

I'd utterly forgotten he had another hand until I felt the firm heat of it brushing my hip.

My remaining blood supply shot to my cheeks and I gripped his haori with a vengeance, using it to pull myself into him. Nearly the entire length of me was pressed to nearly the entire length of him, but I could only take so many things at once so soon, so I set it aside in my mind and raised myself up on the balls of my feet to stick my face into his neck.

The hand at my hip smoothed around the curve of my hip to the small of my back, maintaining pressure against my skin through my clothes so that I'd never forget its presence again. Mimicking the spirit of the movement if not necessarily the direction, his head turned into mine, pressing his cheek into the crown of my head.

I knew it was strange, that I had no real reason to be quite this close to him, but I didn't want to move; I hadn't the will to force myself away from him to a distance that could be explained to polite society. So I stayed pressed to him through multiple gusts of wind, as it seemed they were incensed by the united front we presented and were therefore compelled to try that much harder to bring us down, or just cover us in dust.

Eventually my face cooled to an acceptable temperature and I could feel my chest again enough to know that my heartbeat was steady. But despite having this closeness with him, it suddenly wasn't enough.

I was so greedy.

I slipped my arms from between us and underneath his arms to wrap around his back so I could press more fully against him.

I wanted to feel him.

It still wasn't enough. I wasn't content with his neck anymore. I had to have more of him. So I pulled my head back and he matched me. I had only to catch sight of the warm shade of his eyes for me to chicken out again, but unwilling to return to where I'd been, I compromised.

Riding the waves of his heady scent, I tilted my head up and he obliged me, bringing his down. I pressed my cheek to his, nuzzling into it.

I'm not sure if I expected him to be shocked by my behaviour, but perhaps he was just as caught up in the current of the atmosphere we were generating, because the hand at my lower back began to rub lightly into it, spreading his heat, and his head moved to return my cheek nuzzles.

I breathed a sigh and my eyes fell shut.

It was the absolute height of ridiculousness for me to be in such a position with someone I'd known for such a short time, but he was just so comfortable. And no matter what I knew to be rational, my body just kept doing whatever it wanted. What's worse, he didn't even admonish me for my forwardness; he gave me just as much as I gave him.

I couldn't stop the full smile that bloomed on my face, my teeth making an appearance like the sun coming out from behind the clouds, and my lids lifted a little to take in the stillness of the village beyond.

My eyes greeted the blue March sky, and the stillness of the dirt ground as well as the rice paddies that I could now see. The wind had stopped at some point and had I not just opened my eyes, I wouldn't have known.

What was this? Was it normal to feel this way about you barely knew?

My lazy gaze resting on the village picked up a lone figure coming our way. My eyes fell in and out of focus as my eyes swept back and forth over the horizon only to sharpen the barest bit on the figure as its proximity urged me to acknowledge it.

As it came closer, I noticed the black, purple, and dull gold. Then the billowing robes, the pale face and the dark hair.

The hateful face grinned from ear to ear at us like the cat who got the cream.

"Inuyasha, now I see why you were so upset. Had I known you'd taken an interest in the lady I would have refrained from proffering my services."

My entire face burned and Inuyasha ripped himself from my arms to whip around and glare bloody murder at the antagonistic monk.

"Shut your trap, crooked monk! I ain't interested in anything!"

I winced.

 _Anything_?

Wait, any- _thing_?

Was it his disregard or overcompensation?

He widened his stance and clenched his clawed fists, his soft hair brushing me as he tried to take up as much space as he possibly could.

Miroku held up his palms to Inuyasha, taking a small step back with a little closed-eyed smile, "Now, now, Inuyasha, there's nothing to be ashamed of. It's perfectly natural to take an interest in people of the opposite sex as we get older. I'm happy for you that you've finally decided to embrace this phase of your life."

It didn't even matter that it wasn't directed at me, the snarl that ripped from the enraged angel in front of me set my hair on end. I flinched. "Come over here and say that again monk!"

Miroku took another little step back chuckling nervously now, his smile strained, "Now Inuyasha, there's no need for violence. We all experience these things, it's a natural part of li-"

The gust of wind that rippled my hair and clothes against my skin was my first sign that Inuyasha had left. The second was Miroku face down in the dirt, clutching his skull and groaning.

I looked up from the lecher on the ground to the back of his assailant.

Still spread in as wide a stance as he could maintain without falling over, his fists remained clenched and he panted, staring off into the village. Likely with a look on his face strike the fear of Jesus into several people.

I heard the bamboo shade being pushed out of the way, then, "What's going on out here?"

A pause, then a gasp, "Miroku, what happened to you?"

He groaned from the dirt.

Inuyasha whipped around, but it was to look at the doorway to my right, "Don't coddle him Kagome! This is why he never gets any better: because people like you never put him in his place!"

From my periphery I saw Kagome step forward, "What're you mad at me for? I didn't do anything!"

Inuyasha roared at her, "You've done plenty! You gotta be firm with people like him or they'll always be lechers!"

Kagome jerked back, straightening her spine, then leaned forward as Kaede came up behind her, "Firm?! I'll show you firm! Sit boy!"

Inuyasha dropped like a rock, but after only half a second began to squirm under the weight of the subjugation.

"Sit boy! Sit! Sit! Sit!"

Inuyasha was pushed deeper and deeper into the ground with every command, until he was at the centre of a small crater.

"Is that firm enough for you?!"

She huffed, then turned on her heel and marched back into the hut.

I may have to rethink this chaos thing…

Kaede shuffled a little past the doorway, letting Sango through, "Come now, ye all have had enough fun. It is time that Hisako went to practice," she pointedly looked down at Miroku whose head had just raised from the ground as Sango came to loom over him, "it would be inconsiderate to impede her any further."

Miroku blinked hard, then pushed himself to his feet when it became obvious that Sango wasn't actually going to help him, "Yes, of course Lady Kaede."

The lady in question turned to shuffle back into the hut, but stopped before she passed the threshold, "Ah I almost forgot, Miroku, I have need of ye," then she continued to walk into the hut.

Ah, the fish bones.

Seeing that she'd already left, Miroku mumbled, "Yes Lady Kaede," then dragged his way after her, with a quietly smug Sango in tow.

In the wake of the flurry of activity and heightened emotion, it was almost strange to be alone with Inuyasha – especially when he still remained in the little crater he'd been forced to create with his face.

I considered going over to see if he was alright, but judging by the vengeful abandon with which Kagome had punished him, it was unlikely that this number of occurrences of the subjugation would injure him irretrievably. I wanted to go over and have a look at him anyway, but I had the feeling that he might violently reject anything even vaguely resembling cossetting. So I put my back against the wall as closely as I dared with my bow and quiver attached to me, slid down it, bringing my legs up to my chest with the satchel nestled in my lap and wrapped my arms around my knees. I dropped my chin on my knees to watch for when he was ready to move again.

Any- _thing_.

I supposed I could ask him about that, but like the cossetting, I felt like he'd violently reject something he clearly wasn't yet comfortable with, so maybe I would just let his actions speak for him. He didn't seem like the type who was too fond of words anyway, so it was likely just as well.

Still, it hurt being referred to as a "thing", even if that was just him overcompensating.

I directed my eyes to the sky, and away from the prostrate boy in the hole in the ground.

I hadn't expected it to be quite so windy, but I likely wouldn't have noticed it nearly so much had there not been easily eroded dust all around the area. Considering it was early Spring, it was a little strange that the ground was so dry, but perhaps they'd had a particularly dry winter and the rains had yet to catch up. Or they were going through a drought? But that didn't make any sense, the forest was lush, none of the plants had really felt deprived to me-

I winced.

There was the "communing with nature" thing coming up again – when was it ever normal for someone to be effectively having honest to goodness conversations with plants to know they weren't too under-watered?

I dropped my eyes back to the earth then cut a sharp right to look at the rice paddies.

Either way, the water level didn't look like it'd really gone down, so that lowered the chances of drought. Unless of course these were still only the early stages-

A groan interrupted me.

Thank God, I was beginning to wonder if I'd have to sit here musing to myself about the weather all wretched day.

My eyes flitted back from the water in the distance to the boy who was now rising from the crater, pebbles and dust shaking free as he pushed himself to stand and snorted furiously, presumably to get the dust out of his nose.

I crossed my ankles and interlaced my fingers in front of them to make sure my underwear wasn't showing and he finally turned to look down at where I sat.

Colour crested his cheeks and he looked off toward the rice paddies.

I raised my ribcage to urge my diaphragm to drop and suck air into the vacuum, but lost the air just as quickly struggling to my feet and using the wall as a crutch.

At the sound his eyes surreptitiously stole a glance then jumped back to the water but I persevered, "I'm sorry I embarrassed you in front of Miroku. I didn't mean to."

Tension I hadn't even realised had been in his shoulders seeped out and they dropped with his sigh, "Don't worry about it." He turned his head to look at me, "What did you want?"

I craned my neck back a little and furrowed my brow, a somewhat disinclined to ask him for anything now that I knew exactly how shamed he was by indulging me, "Just…Kaede said I should ask you to take me to go practice again because she's busy today."

The muscles in my brow clenched further.

Goodness, I felt like a child being passed from one parent to another when the first didn't have time to babysit her.

He grunted, "Alright, let's go."

How much more easy-going he was when we didn't have an audience.

I gathered myself and hobbled to him as he was turning away to walk toward the rice paddies, favouring my knees. I huffed a breath and tried to urge my knees to get more comfortable holding weight so I could move faster; I didn't want to lag and make him regret taking me. But suddenly there was blissful relief in my joints; my knees fair wept for being granted sweet respite from supporting my weight.

After the relief, the weightlessness, and heat and pressure of hands pressing into me through my clothes at my back and straight into the skin at my legs registered. I turned my head to him, "What are you doing?"

Though he never broke his stride, my question must've caught him off guard because he didn't immediately speed up or take to the tree tops, "What's it look like? I'm carrying you."

I sputtered, "Bu- but why?"

He maintained his pace but dropped his head to glare into my face, the longer locks of his bangs brushing my cheeks and I could smell the warm, almost savoury note of his breath, "Because you pushed yourself too hard yesterday. You didn't stop and tell me when you were tired so I could take you back to Kaede's or wherever. And now you can't walk – I shouldn't even be taking you to this place. You'll probably just be more of a stubborn idiot when we get there."

'Or wherever'?

I dropped my eyes, though not my head, secretly too greedy to lose this closeness though too frightened to capitalize on it, "Sorry."

He grunted and the brief exhalation stirred a lock of his hair to sweep across my cheekbone, "Quit sayin' sorry and just say somethin' next time."

I hummed at him the finally dropped my head to hide my face in his collarbones, properly chastened.

He turned his head into the crown of mine and I felt the warmth of his breath seeping into my scalp again, "Hold on to me."

Unwilling to upset him again, I didn't ask questions as I raised my arms to wrap around his neck. Then he took two sprinting strides and as his foot connected with the ground on the end of the second, he shot up into the air, sailing toward the treeline.

Just as I had the day before, I felt the insistent press of gravity the instant he took off, and still unable to quite handle the reality of it, I shut my eyes. But unlike the day before, I opened them again once he reached the peak of his parabolic trajectory.

The unrestrained sunlight from the cloudless sky, hardly dimmed for having been a little past midday, lit up the forest so that if you didn't really focus on it as you looked, it was rather like hooker's green moss. I had the strangest urge to take off my shoes and socks and wriggle my toes in it, then we were descending into it. The enlarging moss, showing details like individual leaves, rushing up to us so fast that I almost forgot to shut my eyes as though it could shut the feeling out of my stomach.

We dropped into the treetops and he lunged forward, hopping from limb to limb like a ninja until we landed lightly in the little clearing we'd been in the night before.

Perhaps since it was morning and there was no rush he wanted to minimize visibility?

He bent to deposit me onto my feet then held out his hand.

Subtly shifting my hips to test out my knees, I looked to his open palm then up to his bright eyes and lightly creased brow, "Hm?"

He curled his fingers in then loosely straightened them again, "The bag."

"Mm."

I lifted the satchel over my shoulder and handed it to him, only to watch him turn around and plop down at the base of the tree he'd been watching me from the day before, his eyes intent.

I stared at him in silence for a moment or two, then deciding that he would do what he wanted, I turned to my abused tree and prepared my bow and an arrow.

I gripped the wood and winced as I pulled the string with the nocked arrow back to my cheek.

"What is it now?"

My fingers dropped from the string and I whipped to the voice that was suddenly rumbling next to me, staring dumbly up as I saw his gold eyes looming over me, "Huh?"

The sound of the arrow thwacking into the trunk was lost in the background as he seemed to take up all the space to my right.

A muscle ticked in his cheek and his brow ridge compressed as tightly as it would go, "Somethin's wrong – I can smell it. What hurts?"

I blinked, then dropped my head and experimentally bent my knees one at a time. Babying them seemed to have paid off because they were much improved than they'd been even in Kaede's hut when I'd woken up.

I looked up at him, coming up empty.

He growled lowly and took a step back.

Choosing to disregard the sound that, from an animal I would have thought signified my imminent end, I turned my head to look at the trunk so that I could ready another arrow and the air stilled in my chest. My jaw went slack.

"I did it…" the fingers of my right hand compulsively tightened around the arrow that I'd already drawn to nock, "I di-"

He was on me like a strike of lightning, wrapping my hand in the heat of his and bringing it up to his nose.

I felt the barest breeze as he sniffed me and I locked every muscle in my body to keep from touching his face.

He lifted his eyelids, the way his eyelashes brushed the lower part of his eyebrows making me wish I was close enough to feel them feather across my cheek.

Jesus, what was wrong with me today? Was I starved for affection or something? Maybe I needed to give Kagome a hug.

His eyes blazed like newly minted gold coins in his face, "Why didn't you tell me you hurt your fingers?"

The barest breath whispered over my cupid's bow and I dropped my eyes to inspect his stomach instead.

He really needed to decide if I was going to be the sort of person he went out of his way to bring apples to, or if my importance was closer to that of an inanimate object, because this back and forth was making it a little difficult for me to know how to feel.

He huffed a breath, the gust ruffling the strands of my hair to brush the cheek he'd just nuzzled not half an hour before, then moist warmth was slicking my digits.

My back shot ramrod straight and I swore every little hair on my body stood to attention.

What?

Something warm and thick smoothed along the skin of my fingers, slipping in between each to make sure that no spot was missed until nearly my whole hand was wet.

A shiver slid up my spine to disperse all about the crown of my head and my face – then everything when dead. I could feel nothing but the foreign body.

System shut down; most of my neurons just left the building.

My eyelids were pasted open, my brain having shorted out to such an extent that blinking was now utterly out of the question.

Too shocked to move, I slid my eyeballs to look up at him as best I could and it took every one of my remaining neurones to comprehend what I was seeing.

Was he _licking_ my fingers?

Not having noticed my spontaneous state of distress, his eyes remained half-mast as he reached for my other hand, "This one's injured too, right?" Then he was sliding the firm, wet pinkness of his _tongue_ along my burning index finger.

My throat contracted, compulsively trying to swallow but the normally smooth motion was halted by the Sahara of my mouth.

What in the living hell?!

The very outer edges of my epidermis began to tingle and I wondered if perhaps that meant my neurones had come back from vacation early, but rather than a restoration of my motor functioning, my skin broke out in a fever like I'd set fire to the tumbleweed in my mouth. Combined with the tingling that hadn't gone away, my whole body felt confused and I wondered if it meant that I was more grossed out than I could conceivably stand, or if him licking my fingers was the one of the hottest things I'd ever experienced in my short life.

Not that the answer to this conundrum much mattered, because a second later he slipped his tongue back into his mouth and dropped my hand, turning on his heel to return to his spot by the tree, "I told you," he flopped onto his bottom again, crossing his legs and bringing his hands together in the sleeves of his haori as his glowing eyes managed to pierce even as they were half lidded, "say somethin' next time."


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Hello all, it's that time again! :) Surprise, surprise - I was able to keep schedule this week, but since everything is still so backed up on top of each other, there is always the possibility that I will come back and change things in this. I give fair warning; if I read this over and feel like I don't like how their relationship progressed in this chapter then I'm at liberty to come back and change it. I read it through once this week (I'm sorry I was so negligent), so it shouldn't be that bad, but anything is possible since I'm editing my own work.**

 **So, while this is a relatively "good" week because I could submit on time, I haven't planned out most of chapter 12 so don't be surprised if I don't make a submission next week. I'm also really annoyed because I tried to submit this last night but ff wouldn't let me log in for anything. But anyway, we'll see. I hope you all enjoy my work, and if you do, I hope you deem fit to tell me so. I appreciate all of your thoughts :)**

* * *

 **Chapter 11**

I stared down at the palms of my hands like they were foreign objects.

What the hell just happened?

Why did he _lick_ me?

How could he just lick me like it was nothing; did he have no shame?

My eyes darted to the side.

…Did I want him to…?

No, no. Stop right there. Those are dangerous waters – one thing at a time please.

Flicking my eyes back, I flexed the slightly damp, foreign appendages experimentally, but there was no answering sting. Not even a twinge.

Was there a healing agent in his saliva?

If my eyes could've gotten any wider they would have, at this point they already felt a bit like they wanted to tear.

Oh my god that was so cool.

My cheeks burned like they were being branded.

Kind of intimate, but still beyond cool.

I wondered at the extent of the saliva's healing powers. Could he heal fatal injuries? Internal injuries provided he got creative enough? Brain damage? Reconnect limbs? Where did it come from; was it because he was half of a demon? Or was it something that ran in his lineage? Was his saliva always this potent or could he just will it to heal when it suited him? Were there any adverse effects to him for having done it?

Unconsciously dropping my hands. I raised my head to look at the lounging god who watched me with piercing, glowing slits for eyes even as he sat under the shade of the tree.

God he was beautiful.

An almost terrible kind of beautiful.

The expression on his face was serene, almost unnaturally so. His ever so lightly tanned cheek was completely unlined, his brow smooth with no indication of any emotion to shift it one way or another. His full mouth sat still, like two pieces of fruit anointing his face, deepened in colour by the semi-darkness – but they weren't stretched at all, or even slightly pursed. Even his little ears were unnaturally stiff.

Granted, I'd only known this boy for maybe a day and a half, but he struck me as the type who was often moved to emotion.

Something was wrong.

My eyes scanned his face once more, then held his lazy gaze.

Maybe he worried that this new indication of his genetic deviation had alienated me, and thus he was bracing himself with this unaffected god act for my rejection.

I turned back to the tree, bending to pick up my bow and arrow from where they'd fallen from my nerveless fingers earlier.

I knew I should let him know what I actually thought rather than let him imagine himself into despair, but too many things had happened today in such a short space of time, and I was still wounded by his vehement overcompensation. I needed time to process, and the horrible part of me that hurt the most from his thoughtless words wanted to let him stew a little as I still did: wondering if rejection was waiting.

I nocked an arrow and sighed, letting it fly, uncaring when it missed the tree entirely.

I wouldn't let him sit like that for too long if only because I couldn't actually stand for him to feel that way, but just for a little, I wanted to be selfish.

 **~o0o~**

The minutes passed in a haze, and as I shot arrows everything blurred. The dim feeling of the wood and string in my hands, the occasional breeze that brushed the mildly abrasive material of my skirt against my thighs and urged strands of my hair to tickle my cheeks, muted.

Miroku and his idiocy, as well as my strange compulsive skin-ship issues aside, I didn't feel like there was much of anything I could resolve on my own. How could I possibly know the inner workings of someone I barely knew?

It would have been nice to know what exactly his problem was, but as I lacked sufficient information to draw conclusions… hopefully thereby also ultimately excusing my spontaneous pitiful simpering, I let my mind stay blank.

There was nothing complicated in the feeling of the wind against my skin, and even the trees I consistently abused offered me no emotional retaliation, so I just let myself be.

Of course it might eventually become painfully pertinent that I shoot properly, but for the time being I just couldn't muster the energy to do more than go through the motions.

It was terribly repetitive: retrieve an arrow from the quiver, nock it, pull back and release. Then when I ran out of arrows, go looking for the strays. Retrieve the arrow, nock, pull, release. Retrieve, nock, pull, release. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Somewhere in the fog of this, my mind had a little flicker of synaptic electricity. It occurred to me [rather belatedly] that considering the fact that I really wasn't paying any attention to where I was aiming these things, despite the fact that they were headless, with the momentum the string's elasticity gave them I could very likely injure somebody.

Oops.

Jesus, that'd kind of suck.

"Oy!"

The muscles in my legs, stomach and shoulders spasmed all of a sudden and my breath stuttered.

"What'd I tell you about taking breaks?!"

I turned my head to the scowling face by the tree.

He'd already raised to a half crouch, as if he was prepared to bodily force me to sit down and relax.

Good of him to back up the symbolism of his clothes.

I caught my hands coming up to bend at the elbows parallel to my shoulders, the fingers half curled like I wasn't sure if I needed to go so far as to visibly surrender.

"Alright, alright," the reediness of my voice seemed to sit on top of the wind.

When he saw that I was obeying the directive he resumed his initial position, crossing his arms in the sleeves of his haori as I removed the quiver of arrows, set my bow to stand against the trunk and sat next to him.

Settling myself, I pushed my hair over my left shoulder, perhaps so that if need be I could hide behind the curtain of it, and left the length to curl in the lap of my outstretched legs.

Just as I finished righting myself, the weight of the burlap satchel slapped lightly into my lap.

I raised my head to look at his cheek as it seemed he still awaited the rejection and refused to give me his eyes.

"Eat."

I dropped my chin and eyelids, and turned to the satchel in my lap.

To give or not to give.

Kaede had clearly given me too much onigiri for me to eat alone.

My lips pressed lightly together, the corner coming up to help wrinkle my nose.

Was the old woman playing matchmaker? Or was she just being considerate of the boy who habitually insulted her?

Both were possible, but I'd have to wait and see what she did in future to know which had been her predominant intention.

My lips and nose relaxed as I opened the bag.

Either way-

"Do you want one?"

I'd turned to the boy who seemed to be doing his best to impersonate a statue and held one of the overlarge triangles of packed rice in my palm up to him.

Refusing to turn his head, I was only treated to the impression of a lowering eyebrow and part of an amber iris, "Eat – you need it more."

I tucked my chin the barest bit and lightly knit my brows, "Please?"

He snorted a breath through his nose then turned his iris forward again.

I dropped my shoulders from the slight elevation they'd gained from the swell of my hope and turned to rest my back more firmly against the warm, rough bark of the tree. The short blades of grass touching the sides of my knees and thighs brushed soothingly against my skin while the blades in the rows a little further behind those reached for me, eager to offer themselves for comfort as well.

I brushed the fingers of my right hand over them, accepting the gift of their little tickles, then I took my hand back to open the bag. I lifted the rest of the onigiri out, the fabric covering my left upper arm brushing his haori as I laid them out on top of the burlap bag.

I unwrapped the one I'd been trying to give him and stared off into the distance without really seeing anything as I took small bites and chewed.

I absently wondered how far we were from the river, then considered if after all this I really wanted to ask him for anything else.

I wouldn't die if my throat was a little dry.

The sudden loss of a slight weight from my lap distracted me from my idle thoughts and I turned my head to find him downing half the rice ball in one bite.

My eyes widened and my chest lifted, as if I was gradually breathing in my happiness; too frightened to take it in too fast lest it slip from me.

He whipped his head from me to almost completely face the opposite direction, and his little white ears twitched madly atop his head as if they'd been electrocuted.

"Eat woman!"

I turned back to face forward but hunched my shoulders so that my hair fell forward and hid the smile that split my lips in my onigiri.

 **~o0o~**

He ultimately ended up taking another rice ball when I insisted that I couldn't fit anymore, but while we ate we did so in relative silence; only sporadically disrupted by birds twittering. His muscles were still a little tense and my legs seemed to decide they wanted to express agitation for the both of us, and so fidgeted a little every now and then. One leg would bend at the knee and rub along the calf and shin of the other, then they would switch places, my hips unconsciously moving along a little to assist.

My fingers eventually took this on as well, fidgeting out their own miniature version.

I didn't feel like I'd necessarily been at it that long, but I supposed I was wrong, because bright amber eyes were on me again - narrowed and accompanied by a slightly protruding jawline, as though he were clenching his teeth, "What's wrong with you now? Do you have to take a piss?"

I jerk back with wide eyes, the bark of the tree abrading my shoulder through my uniform as I turned with the sharp movement, "No!" Then a half whisper, "N-no."

His ears waved around on his head like flags caught in a hurricane as he glared down at me, "Then what the hell's your problem?"

My lips pressed back into my teeth, "Nothing, sorry."

His little ears slowed their movement as his brow relaxed. He breathed a sigh then jerked his chin in the direction of where I'd been practicing before, "Go on and practice," he rose in a fluid movement to his feet, "your break's gone on long enough now."

My lips relaxed and my eyebrows came together as I dropped my chin a little.

I bent my legs to the side and as I shifted to my knees I heard him huff a breath, then as I got to my feet, fabric shuffled and tore.

He thrust a long, thin rectangle of red something under my nose, "Here, use this so you'll stop hurting your fingers so damned much."

I lifted my head to look at his face which, much like the last time he offered me something, was turned to look as far over his shoulder as he could manage without breaking his own neck.

Red?

I ran my eyes down the length of him, noticing that his haori was tucked even less neatly into his hakama than it usually was.

Did just rip his own clothes?

My eyebrows came together.

He waved it under my nose, "Just take the damn thing already."

I looked up from the fabric he had caught in the death grip of his clawed fingers to his cheek, "Why did you rip your shirt?"

He turned his head to me a little, flicking his eyes to me surreptitiously as if to take a peek to ascertain if I was still looking at him. As I still was, they promptly looked back over his shoulder while his ears rotated frantically on is head, "It's the Robe of the Fire Rat. It's fire resistant, self-cleaning and self-repairing. So it's durable – use it."

I didn't move, "What? Use it how?"

He looked up at the sky, then dropped his head to look at the ground, heaved out a breath the turned to me, "C'mere."

He too the length of fabric between his teeth and pulled viciously until he ripped it into several pieces, then he took my hand and wrapped each piece loosely around the fingers that would come in contact with the string and the arrow.

When he finished he dropped my hand, and as I stared at my now red wrapped fingers he wrapped the index finger of my other hand and dropped it.

Though he'd gone so far as to apply his gift to me himself, he still refused to meet my eyes, so he looked down and over to the side, somewhere near my right hip, "When you're gonna practice, use 'em."

The muscles in my face tensed, and as my brows pulled together I looked down at my fingers again then back up at his cheek, "You didn't have to do this; I'm not worth going so far as to rip up your clothes – it's not that serious."

My eyes widened, stricken, "Dear God."

His eyes shot up to take in my miserable face, and his scrunched into a scowl, "Just use 'em."

This time I felt the heat coming up from my neck long before it ever reached my cheeks and I dropped my eyes, "Thank you."

He grunted, straightened and turned on his heel preparing to jump-

"Wait. If it's basically like armour, how did you…you know what? Never mind. Go ahead – I'll go practice now."

He puffed a breath through his nose then he was gone, having completely vanished save for the eyes that always seemed to watch me from the boughs of a tree.

I hurried over to the tree, picked up my bow and quiver then went back to my practicing spot.

 **~o0o~**

Concerned for the general well-being of any unfortunate bystander who might happen to pass through the area, I narrowed my focus as best I could so that I'd make sure that I would at least hit the right tree.

My focus was so complete that I didn't notice anything had changed until I felt the first frigid drop on my forehead.

I lowered the bow and arrow I'd drawn and tilted my head to look up at the overcast sky, another drop landing just below my eyebrow so I found myself blinking to avoid it getting into my eye.

Although all things considered, since the Industrial revolution was still a ways off the rain water was probably fairly clean; I didn't need to fear spontaneous blindness or something else equally dramatic as I might've in the present provided I was one inclined toward theatrics.

I was a bit of a hypochondriac, but not melodramatic.

So I let myself stare up at it for a little, enjoying the drops as they pelted my face faster and faster.

I couldn't have been looking for more than a minute but already the sky seemed on the precipice of tearing open.

My clothes were sopping wet and clung to me like a cold, leeching, unforgiving second skin.

I turned my head to look at the tree, blinking a water droplet off of my eyelashes only to find that he stood not ten feet from me with the arrows I'd shot in his hand, just watching me.

Christ I must look like a mad woman.

A flashover seared my cheeks and I bit the inside of my bottom lip, clenching my numbing fingers on the wet wood of my bow and the single arrow I held. I dropped my eyes, "Ah- we should probably go."

There was a grunt, then wood was pulled from my fingers and pressed into the space between my breasts, a strap of fabric was thrown over my shoulder to join the other and I was swung up against a blessedly warm body.

My hair was drenched and swung heavily as I looked up to see him scenting the air, "Inu-"

He shot off the ground like a bolt, leaping from tree branch to tree branch to take cover from the brunt of the rain.

It occurred to me that I could properly look around while he ran since this was becoming a regular thing, but I just couldn't bring myself to. Beyond thanking anyone who would listen that I wasn't really prone to motion sickness I couldn't keep myself from pressing my cheek into his collarbone and finding his neck with my nose.

He was just too warm, like a furnace that could modulate its temperature so I wouldn't die. I seeped that heat into my cheek like I had no intention of ever moving, and I really began to see what cats were on to.

No wonder they slept on people's heads sometimes.

Much sooner than I would have expected, we touched down and I opened my eyes.

As per usual there was greenery – the only difference was that it was now practically on top of us; at Kaede's I usually had to walk a little before I could get to touch something growing.

Where were we?

I lifted my head from his shoulder, absently exchanging it for a palm on his chest as I looked around. We stood in front of a small naturally occurring cave, nestled in the thick of the forest.

Why had I never noticed that there was a rock face like this to support a cave before?

This was potentially useful information provided I got stuck in this time, but what were we doing here?

He bent and let my wet thighs slide out of his grip, supporting my back as he did, and my sodden skirt ruched up to the lower curves of my bottom.

Face inflamed, I fought to straighten out the rough fabric before he saw anything, and he stepped away to precede me into the cave, "Wait here."

My face was hot and my muscles were having tiny seizures, "A-ah."

He stepped into the semi-darkness and rounded a corner, then he was gone. Apparently the cave wasn't very big though, because he was back within the minute.

His little white ears roved slowly one way then the other and he jerked his head back into the cave, "Go wait in there, I'll be back."

I took a step in, turning as I did to face the outside because he was already passing me to leave, "Wait, whe-"

He sprung off the ground into the tree line, the little muffled thump that one might have normally heard completely drowned out by the downpour.

I stepped further into the cave looking around.

It was dry, but looked a little dusty and had some scattered stalactites. However, there were blessedly few stalagmites, so in theory if I didn't care about my clothes I could sit down. Except my little muscle seizures hadn't stopped though my cheeks had cooled, and the extra discomfort coupled with the unfamiliar cave was making me feel prissy.

Compromising, I lifted the straps of the quiver and empty satchel over my shoulder to set them down, then pulled myself free of my bow so that it could join them against the rock where they could hope to dry.

I turned, rounded the corner again and stared out, trying to see if I could spot some crimson, but there was nothing. The rain was coming down in sheets, it was a wonder Inuyasha could see anything at all out there.

My stomach muscles locked.

What if he couldn't get back. He could get sick.

I looked around, putting a hand on the mouth of the cave.

Should I try to look for him in case he needed help?

I looked down at my soft thighs, goosebumps raised on the pale skin and the sad wet black shoes and socks that covered the rest of my legs.

If he was having trouble manoeuvring, I highly doubted that that my bumbling was going to be any more efficient.

I looked off to the side.

In which case he'd just give me an earful when he eventually found me.

A draft blew in and I huddled against the inner part of the cave's mouth, trying to calm my shuddering by locking the rest of my muscles, but it was proving to be a lost cause.

I knew it made absolutely no sense to go out there after him; the potential of damage to myself greatly outweighed the chance that I'd find him, and once there be able to bring him back, but it felt terribly wrong to abandon someone who might be in trouble just because helping them presented danger to my person.

What to do, what to do?

I jerked up my wrist and looked at my watch.

Alright, if he wasn't back in fifteen minutes I'd try looking for him.

The muscles in my legs were having terrible arguments with each other, so I decided to take some of the freedom from them and forced myself into a stoop, tucking the back of my skirt in between the backs of my thighs and calves.

I clung to the cave mouth with my left hand while my right sought sanctuary in the space between my chest and my legs.

I alternated between shaking, dropping my head and blinking hard to make sure I didn't fall asleep, and straining my ciliary muscles to stare out into the rain.

My head must have gotten a little fuzzy because I forgot to check my watch; it was just me and the rain, then there was suddenly a crimson streak cutting through the sheet like butter.

If I'd blinked I would have missed it - then he was crouched beside me.

With his hands on the floor just before his raised knees and his feet, he leaned forward just a bit then in all seriousness, shook himself dry like a dog.

Unable to manage a great range of movement too quickly, I shut my eyes and turned my head away as his hair and clothes pelted me with more water until the onslaught was over.

I turned my head back to blink heavy eyelids at him, and his brilliant golden eyes, like suns in this dark, Godforsaken place fixed on my damp face.

His brow creased a little, "Whatcha doing on the ground?"

Before I could do more than shiver like the pitiful wretch I was, he was in front of me, taking off his haori and wrapping it around me, "Come on, you shouldn't stay here." He picked me up then rounded the corner, and it seemed he wasn't at all impeded by social niceties like maintaining clean clothes because he plopped right down with his back to the cave wall and laid me to rest curled up against his chest.

A few of my frigid little fingers curled up in the white fabric covering his chest, "In-n-n-nu-"

He had an arm wrapped around my back that ended in a nice little bundle of heat by my hip, but his other was free, so in response to my shivering he brought it to rub the outside of my left thigh, "Jeez woman, what'd you do, why are you so cold?" He pulled me more firmly into him so I could stretch up and put my face in his neck, "I'm always hot – just take it from me."

I sucked in a breath and puffed it against his neck, nuzzling into the space, "M-mm."

He was blissfully warm. Some of his hair had fallen over his shoulder when he'd sat with me and even that was helping to warm my calves. Never even mind his chest or his neck. His heat seemed to seep into me – as if I'd become one of the plants that gravitated toward me and his heat was funnelling into me with capillarity. I'd never been so happy to be glorified celery.

Nor had I ever gotten this warm simply touching another person. That combined with the sound of the rain was lulling me to sleep. I was fairly certain that I was warm enough now that if I succumbed I'd be fine, but I needed to remember that I hardly knew this boy I was mooning over. So I needed to keep myself awake.

I couldn't quite bring myself to lift my head from his shoulder yet, so I tilted my chin down so that my voice wouldn't be lost in his neck or his hair, "Inuyasha?"

His pleasantly warm palm was still rubbing his heat into my thigh and I watched as the white sleeve of his kosode brushed lightly over the other thigh, "Hm?"

"How'd you find this cave?"

The motion of his hand slowed but kept going, "I smelled it on the wind."

"Oh," I breathed into his collarbone, "your sense of smell really is strong."

He grunted.

"What else can you smell?"

"Stuff someone's eaten, where they've been for the last few hours and sometimes the sort of places they usually are." His hand stilled on my thigh, "I can smell if someone's human or a demon, or something else."

I tipped my head back to press my nose into his neck and he huffed a breath that blew locks of hair against my cheek, "I can tell where a woman is in her cycle and if she's breeding."

I clutched his shirt and shoved my face into his neck, "Breeding?!" Then on a wheeze, "Cycle?"

He resumed rubbing my thigh, "Yeah, you know – when a woman's about to have pups."

"Pu-" I choked and jerked my head back, thrusting my arms against his chest to put distance between us, "Good Jesus!"

His molten gold eyes were suddenly blazing, lips peeled back from his teeth just enough to show his fangs and halves of the rest, "What the hell're you doin' woman?! Come back here before you freeze to death!"

My face fell a little slack, my jaw going up and down as if I were contemplating attempting speech, "A-a-"

The arm that had been wrapped around my back pulled sharply then I was flush with his chest once more, my hair a mess in my lap.

I took a moment to breathe and take stock, absently running my fingers into an imaginary spot on his chest as I watched them.

Pups.

He thought of babies as 'pups'. And when he'd come in he'd shaken himself like a dog. How far did this animalistic instinct go?

I'd have to look a few things up and then if I could, experiment. Asking outright seemed like it might be more trouble than it was worth.

Speaking of trouble.

"Inuyasha?" He turned his head to rest his chin on the crown of my head where I'd tucked it, "Your saliva is magic?"

He jerked back a little and went stiff, "What?"

I pulled my head back so I could look up into his tense face, "Your saliva can heal can't it? So it's magic, right?"

His brows came together like caterpillars moving across his forehead, "No. It's not magic."

"Then how does it heal? Do you just will it to? Does it hurt you to use it? Does it run in your family?"

The muscles in his cheeks were starting to get tight, "Yeah, it works when I want it to and no it doesn't hurt me," he looked off to the side, "but I dunno if it runs in my family."

I waited to see if he would say anything else, but he seemed lost in thought. His usually bright eyes were shadowed.

I pursed my lips and furrowed my brow, "Well I'm sorry it took me so long to say this, but thank you – for healing me and for giving me part of your shirt."

His eyes darted back to me, then they were off contemplating the cave wall again with an accompanying grunt and colour cresting his cheekbones.

I dipped my head to hide the smile that stretched my lips and spare him any embarrassment.

Perhaps I _was_ right to watch his actions rather than what he said – at least the things he said to other people anyway.

If he held the same regard for me as he did an inanimate object, I find it hard to believe that I would be in this position, having received things he'd actually given to me of his own volition.

I leaned back into his chest nuzzling my nose up into his neck until he would relax and let me into the space, then he rubbed his cheek against the side of my head while I nudged my nose into his neck.

God why was I always so greedy?

While his right hand resumed smoothing over my outer thigh, I burrowed my nose further into his neck and breathed, shifting my hips a bit to see if I could get any closer.

It was like his body heat was filling my head, and it didn't help that every shift of our bodies or glide of hair over fabric disrupted the air molecules around us, so it was like everything was working to maintain the plume of his heat.

Keeping me drunk.

Then I suddenly wasn't content to leave my left palm on his chest – I needed more contact.

So I slithered it up until the skin of my palm and fingertips touched his warm neck and breathed.

God he smelled good.

I pressed my fingertips a little more firmly and turned my head so that our cheeks could touch.

Arching my back a little, my left hand that had been trapped between us had just enough space to clutch unto his kosode and my legs curled more into him.

His right hand now having a larger surface area over which to move, ventured higher up my thigh approaching my hip, spreading his body heat further up my flank and coming to brush the raised hem of my skirt and his frayed haori.

I nuzzled his smooth cheek and breathed.

I want-

"Are you trying to scent me?"

The air sucked into my throat so fast it squeaked through my vocal chords and I shoved away from his chest again.

Scent him?

Was this like the kind of 'scenting' I read about in read in novels with shifters?

Where if a shifter character wanted to mate another character, they would rub up against them to spread the scents on each other so that anyone else who smelled them would know whom each belonged to?

What was I even supposed to say to that?

What was the appropriate answer to a question like that?

Was he even allowed to ask something like that this early?

Maybe it was my fault.

"N- A- I don't-"

Then again maybe he was referencing when we were talking about all the things he could smell; like I was trying to smell those things on him.

How did I know which one?!

He flattened me to his chest again, "Woman, what'd I tell you about stayin' warm!"

I deflated against him, weak and shaky; I could only take so much emotion at once, "M-mm."

He held me against him and resumed stroking the rough, warm pad of his hand over my thigh, though this time he stopped a few inches below the hem of my damp ruched skirt and his haori.

Hmm.

Listening to his heartbeat and the now soft patter of the rain, I soon felt my breathing deepen and the tightness in my chest that always accompanied my heart racing ease.

So again calm, I resumed rubbing imaginary spots into his kosode.

It was strange how although I was in the arms of a virtual stranger, arms I could feel the sturdy mass of and had already seen demonstrate the insignificance of my weight several times over, I felt so comfortable.

I supposed it made sense that I would intrinsically trust him more because he'd displayed his ability and willingness to protect me utterly without direction from anyone else, but this seemed a bit much. Not to speak of the way I seemed to be itching to maul him at every opportunity.

Maybe it was a mix of the sword prowess, hormones and a deficit of regular affection, but surely I couldn't go on this way?

It was fine, I'd go home and I could hug my mother. Maybe the time away from him would calm me down some…then again maybe I just needed a boyfriend.

I'd been meaning to try one of those…

My eyes meandered to the rock wall, unseeing.

But what if I couldn't get back?

…

Then I guess I was screwed.

I tilted my head up and looked at his chin, "Inuyasha?"

I hadn't noticed it before, but with my calling his name he unconsciously pressed his thumb a little harder where he'd begun rubbing it over my hipbone, "Hm?"

"Do you think I'll be able to go back?"

He was quiet for a minute, then, "Couldn't say."

The fingers of my left hand began to loosely curl into the fabric of his kosode, "But what if I can't?"

He puffed a breath of warm air through his nose and the sudden expulsion ruffled my hairline, "What about it? It's not like being here's a death sentence. And if you're scared, don't bother. I'm not weak – I'll keep any idiots from tryin' to pick you off."

I tucked my head under his chin as the short breath of air shot from my nose so that I could hide the smile pulling at my cheeks.

My hero.

 **~o0o~**

Warm.

He was so warm and comfortable.

I took in a breath and just as soon let the weight of my rib cage push it back out as I looked with unfocused eyes at the arm that still rubbed soothing strokes into my thigh, then beyond to the back of the shallow cave.

So comfortable…if only he'd recline a little bit it'd be perfect.

I shifted my hips a little in his lap and turned my face more fully into his chest, ignoring the hand that had fallen into the well of our laps when I'd wavered in and out of wakefulness, though it could have probably made the move a little easier.

"Hey," voice low and calm, his head dipped down to gently nose my hair.

"Mmm," my own voice was high and smooth; I was too tired to put any real power behind it but I hadn't been under deeply enough to make it husky.

His nose nudged my hair aside, burrowing, "The rain's stopped. Did you wanna go back and practice?"

"Hm?"

I put the fallen hand against his chest and silently mourned the loss of his nose as I pushed myself back.

I'd expected him to arrange me to fit the way he usually carried me since it was generally faster to travel that way, but the hand on the outside of my thigh only slid further up my flank, then underneath.

I sucked in a breath and straightened my back, but he only took the opportunity to pull his left hand back to rest the palm against my back and the other continued over his haori until, with his ascent from the floor, I was sitting on his forearm.

Huh, this was new.

Certainly it made it easier for me to wrap my arms around his neck, which I promptly did, but I wondered at the change.

Maybe convenience?

He walked around the corner and I saw the red, orange and yellow streaking the sky.

I turned my head to him, but the new position brought me higher than before, so the tip of my nose brushed his cheek.

My diaphragm bottomed out and I dipped my head to pull back just a little, my face its own mini sun.

Now this just wasn't fair; this wasn't helping my condition at all.

"A-" I cleared my throat, "Actually Inuyasha, we should probably go to the well – we agreed to meet there at sunset."

He turned his head a little into me, and I was grateful for my face getting lost in his hair, because I felt the very end of his nose brush the tip of my earlobe and the puff of air when he spoke, "Then let's go."

As before, he stayed within the height limit of the trees, but with the new position I could either tuck my face into his neck or watch the tangle of our hair, what with mine having fallen over both our shoulders with the momentum and bouncing.

The forest looked a little different leaving it behind rather than flinging ourselves at breakneck speed into it, but for what little I could focus on at this velocity, the rain had only made it more vibrant. I wished I had more of an opportunity to see the plants glisten in the dew; bask in the moisture. But before long we were at the well.

Inuyasha lightened the pressure of the hand at my back so that I could look around and as I turned my torso, my right hand sliding down his chest, I saw Kagome perched on the side of the well and Sango standing primly beside her, the mischievous smile from earlier back out in full force.

My head exploded in heat and jerked back, neck stiff. My lips near disappeared into my teeth and my cheek muscles tightened so violently that they immediately began to burn.

Sango's smile for me was small and blessedly, no different from her usual ones.

Maybe she's happy for me?

Either that or she doesn't care one way or another.

Fair.

"Hisako."

"M-mm."

Inuyasha bent, being careful it seemed not to accidentally push up my shirt and his haori in the process.

Once my feet touched the ground I seriously considered just hiding in his chest, but knowing Kagome, that'd probably just make things worse.

Jesus. Why couldn't I have nice quiet friends?

I properly turned to just catch Kagome having bitten the inside of her cheek to restrain the full force of the smile.

I did my best to scrunch every muscle in my face and scowled viciously at her.

Not that it made a difference.

"So Hisako," she hopped off the ledge and brought her hands together behind her back.

The girl was practically skipping with it.

"Are you ready?"

I squinted my eyes at her because I didn't know how to glare any harder than I already was, "Yeah sure."

She unleashed the smile, apparently deciding that since we were about to do something moderately big, she could pass it off as excitement, "Well, here I go!"

Then she was turning around, climbing onto the ledge and letting herself fall into the dark hole.

The blood drained from my face in a moment of panic and my cheeks tingled numbly from the loss.

What if all of this wasn't real?

What if I'd imagined some of this and Kagome had just dropped herself into well some fifteen feet deep?

I ran up to the ledge in time to see a small flash of light burst from the opening.

In a matter of seconds, it died down and as soon as it did I looked over the edge but I couldn't see anything, "Kagome?"

The warm weight of a large hand on my back distracted me from my building panic.

"She's alright, she's already crossed over."

I straightened and looked up into the glow of his clear amber eyes, and let the steadiness in them become the steadiness in my own heart.

His hand lingered a moment more, then he was hopping over the side into a welcoming flash of light. A few seconds later, there was another little flash then a call from the bottom, "Alright, enough waitin'. Come on!"

I looked back into Sango's face but it was serene, her smile the same, "All will be well either way. Inuyasha will ensure your safety."

My eyebrows drew together and I nibbled at the inside of my bottom lip, but after a moment's hesitation I bobbed a bow and turned to the well.

Not wanting to waste anyone's time, I shut off my mind as much as I could to prevent incapacitating panic, then touched my fingers to the wooden ledge and hoisted myself to sit on it. Peeking over my pale, diminutive knees I saw crimson and blazing gold staring right back up at me.

Whether we were in the dark or the light…

I considered closing my eyes and just getting it over with, but no – if he was willing to catch me, then I was willing to look him in the eye and trust him to do it.

It was time to stop making him wait.

I heaved myself off the ledge.


End file.
